Exam question 3 · Norse Tales, The Master Thief, part 16: the youth steals a…

According to the text, what did the robbers instruct the youth to accomplish before he could join them?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: robbers, he · What happens: accord, do, instruct, accomplish, join · To what, where: youth, robbers

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1519 «Norse Tales, The Master Thief, part 16: the youth steals a man's ox with a shoe and a trick» 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	According	accord	VERB	ExtPos=ADP Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 text	case
2	to	to	ADP	_	1 According	fixed
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 text	det
4	text	text	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 did	obl
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 did	punct
6	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	7 did	nsubj
7	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 robbers	det
9	robbers	robber	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 instruct	nsubj
10	instruct	instruct	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 did	parataxis
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 youth	det
12	youth	youth	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 instruct	obj
13	to	to	PART	_	14 accomplish	mark
14	accomplish	accomplish	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 instruct	advcl
15	before	before	SCONJ	_	18 join	mark
16	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	18 join	nsubj
17	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	18 join	aux
18	join	join	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	14 accomplish	xcomp
19	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	18 join	obj
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	accord	gerund				vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent
2	do	past			accord the text	vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	instruct speech: other	present	the robbers	the youth		vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent youth=Recipient
4	accomplish	to-infinitive	the robbers not said here			vn complete-55.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
5	join	could	he	robbers = robber		vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient

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

steal a cow without being seen

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	steal	steal	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 cow	det
3	cow	cow	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 steal	obj
4	without	without	SCONJ	_	6 seen	mark
5	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 seen	aux:pass
6	seen	see	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 steal	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	steal	imperative	you not said here	a cow					vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location cow=Theme
2	see	gerund · passive	you not said here						vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

steal an ox unobserved and unharmed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	steal	steal	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 ox	det
3	ox	ox	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 steal	obj
4	unobserved	unobserv	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 steal	xcomp
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 unharmed	cc
6	unharmed	unharmed	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 unobserved	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	steal	imperative	you not said here	a ox					tree rules
2	unobserv	participle	you not said here						tree rules

Option 3

steal a horse

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	steal	steal	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 horse	det
3	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 steal	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	steal	imperative	you not said here	a horse					vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location horse=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

pay them with a silver ring

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	pay	pay	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 pay	obj
3	with	with	ADP	_	6 ring	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 ring	det
5	silver	silver	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 ring	amod
6	ring	ring	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 pay	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pay	imperative	you not said here	them = they				with a silver ring	vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Asset

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/1519-pg540-part16/e3/