Exam question 3 · Fairy Tales, Little Thumb, part 1: the parents plan to los…

Specify the object which the youngest child employed in order to mark the path by which his brothers returned home.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, object, brothers · What happens: specify, child, employ, mark, return · To what, where: object, youngest child, order, path

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1467 «Fairy Tales, Little Thumb, part 1: the parents plan to lose their sons in the forest, and Little Thumb leaves a trail of white pebbles» of the books course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: the test at school.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Specify	specify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 object	det
3	object	object	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Specify	obj
4	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 child	nsubj
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 child	det
6	youngest	young	ADJ	Degree=Sup	7 child	amod
7	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 object	appos
8	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 child	acl
9	in	in	ADP	_	10 order	case
10	order	order	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 employed	obl
11	to	to	PART	_	12 mark	mark
12	mark	mark	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 employed	advcl
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 path	det
14	path	path	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 mark	obj
15	by	by	ADP	_	16 which	case
16	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	19 returned	obl
17	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	18 brothers	nmod:poss
18	brothers	brother	NOUN	Number=Plur	19 returned	nsubj
19	returned	return	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 path	acl:relcl
20	home	home	ADV	_	19 returned	advmod
21	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Specify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	specify	imperative	you not said here	the object			vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent object=Theme
2	child		the object				tree rules
3	employ	participle		the youngest child not said here	order		vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
4	mark	to-infinitive		the path			vn image_impression-25.1 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent path=Destination
5	return	past	child's brothers			by the path; home property	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

The options

Option 1

Fragments of firewood tied into bundles

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fragments	fragment	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 tied	nsubj:pass
2	of	of	ADP	_	3 firewood	case
3	firewood	firewood	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Fragments	nmod
4	tied	tie	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	into	into	ADP	_	6 bundles	case
6	bundles	bundle	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 tied	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tie	participle · passive		Fragments of firewood				into bundles	vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: subject=Patient into bundle=Co-Patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Crumbs of bread taken from the kitchen

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Crumbs	crumb	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 taken	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	3 bread	case
3	bread	bread	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Crumbs	nmod
4	taken	take	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	from	from	ADP	_	7 kitchen	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 kitchen	det
7	kitchen	kitchen	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 taken	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	take	participle	Crumbs of bread			the kitchen			vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial_location»: agent=Agent from kitchen=Initial_Location

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

White pebbles gathered from the river-side

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	White	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 pebbles	amod
2	pebbles	pebble	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 gathered	nsubj
3	gathered	gather	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	from	from	ADP	_	8 side	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 side	det
6	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 side	compound
7	-	-	PUNCT	_	6 river	punct
8	side	side	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 gathered	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	gather	past	White pebbles			the river side			vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent from side=Source

Option 4

Coins concealed beneath the father's stool

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Coins	coin	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 concealed	nsubj
2	concealed	conceal	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	beneath	beneath	ADP	_	7 stool	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 father	det
5	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 stool	nmod:poss
6	's	's	PART	_	5 father	case
7	stool	stool	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 concealed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	conceal	past	Coins			the father's stool			vn concealment-16 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent beneath stool=Location

Text: the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (world/data/school/), as the course runner gave them to the student. Trees: Mova's own parse — the en model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1467-pg503-part54/e3/