Exam question 3 · Arabian Nights, Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Peri Banou, par…

Upon what grounds did the Sultan decline to bestow the Princess upon any single Prince?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · What happens: ground, do, bestow · To what, where: Sultan decline, Princess

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1495 «Arabian Nights, Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Peri Banou, part 82: a lost arrow leads Ahmed to a hidden palace» 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	Upon	upon	SCONJ	_	3 grounds	mark
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 grounds	nsubj
3	grounds	ground	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 grounds	ccomp
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 decline	det
6	Sultan	Sultan	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 decline	compound
7	decline	decline	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
8	to	to	PART	_	9 bestow	mark
9	bestow	bestow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 decline	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 Princess	det
11	Princess	princess	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 bestow	obj
12	upon	upon	ADP	_	15 Prince	case
13	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	15 Prince	det
14	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 Prince	amod
15	Prince	Prince	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 bestow	obl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 grounds	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ground	present			tree rules
2	do	past	the Sultan decline		vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent decline=Eventuality
3	bestow	to-infinitive	the Princess	upon any single Prince	tree rules

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 · ← Mova's choice

The three princes were of equal rank

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 princes	det
2	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 princes	nummod
3	princes	prince	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 rank	nsubj
4	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 rank	cop
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 rank	case
6	equal	equal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 rank	amod
7	rank	rank	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the three princes					of equal rank	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The three gifts were of equal merit

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 gifts	det
2	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 gifts	nummod
3	gifts	gift	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 merit	nsubj
4	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 merit	cop
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 merit	case
6	equal	equal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 merit	amod
7	merit	merit	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the three gifts					of equal merit	tree rules

Option 3

All gifts were equal

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	All	all	DET	PronType=Tot	2 gifts	det
2	gifts	gift	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 equal	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 equal	cop
4	equal	equal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	all gifts					equal property	tree rules

Option 4

The gifts were alike

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 gifts	det
2	gifts	gift	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 alike	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 alike	cop
4	alike	alike	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the gifts					alike property	tree rules

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/1495-pg503-part82/e3/