Exam question 4 · Lang Fairy Book, Rosette, part 21: the fairies foretell da…

What reason did the fairies give, as recorded in the text, for withholding their prophecy from the Queen at the christening feast?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: reason, fairies · What happens: do, give, record, withhold · To what, where: text, prophecy, christening feast

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1524 «Lang Fairy Book, Rosette, part 21: the fairies foretell danger for Rosette» 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 did	obj
2	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	nsubj
3	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 fairies	det
5	fairies	fairy	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 give	nsubj
6	give	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 did	ccomp
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 recorded	punct
8	as	as	SCONJ	_	9 recorded	mark
9	recorded	record	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 give	conj
10	in	in	ADP	_	12 text	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 text	det
12	text	text	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 recorded	obl
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 withholding	punct
14	for	for	SCONJ	_	15 withholding	mark
15	withholding	withhold	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 recorded	advcl
16	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 prophecy	nmod:poss
17	prophecy	prophecy	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 withholding	obj
18	from	from	ADP	_	20 Queen	case
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 Queen	det
20	Queen	Queen	PROPN	Number=Sing	17 prophecy	nmod
21	at	at	ADP	_	24 feast	case
22	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	24 feast	det
23	christening	christening	NOUN	Number=Sing	24 feast	compound
24	feast	feast	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 withholding	obl
25	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	do	past	reason				tree rules
2	give	present	the fairies				vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
3	record	participle	the fairies not said here		the text		vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in text=Destination
4	withhold	gerund	the fairies not said here	fairies's prophecy	the christening feast	from the Queen	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

That their wands had been left behind

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	6 left	nsubj
2	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 wands	nmod:poss
3	wands	wand	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 left	nsubj:pass
4	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 left	aux
5	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	6 left	aux:pass
6	left	leave	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	behind	behind	ADV	_	6 left	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	leave behind	past · perfect · passive		That				behind property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

That their book of magic had been left at home, so they could not consult it

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 book	det
2	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 book	nmod:poss
3	book	book	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 left	nsubj:pass
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 magic	case
5	magic	magic	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 book	nmod
6	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 left	aux
7	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	8 left	aux:pass
8	left	leave	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
9	at	at	ADP	_	10 home	case
10	home	home	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 left	obl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 consult	punct
12	so	so	ADV	_	16 consult	advmod
13	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 consult	nsubj
14	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	16 consult	aux
15	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	16 consult	advmod
16	consult	consult	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 left	conj
17	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 consult	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	leave	past · perfect · passive		their book of magic		home			vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Theme at home=Location
2	not consult	could	they	book					vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

Option 3

That they had sworn an oath to say nothing until the christening was over

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	4 sworn	nsubj:pass
2	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 sworn	nsubj
3	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 sworn	aux
4	sworn	swear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 oath	det
6	oath	oath	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 sworn	obj
7	to	to	PART	_	8 say	mark
8	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 oath	acl
9	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	8 say	obj
10	until	until	SCONJ	_	14 over	mark
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 christening	det
12	christening	christening	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 over	nsubj
13	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 over	cop
14	over	over	ADV	_	8 say	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	swear	past · perfect · passive		That		vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V NP to be NP»: subject=Theme oath=Eventuality
2	say speech: assert	to-infinitive		nothing		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent nothing=Topic
3	is	past	the christening		over property	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

That their book of magic had been left at home

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 book	det
2	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 book	nmod:poss
3	book	book	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 left	nsubj:pass
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 magic	case
5	magic	magic	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 book	nmod
6	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 left	aux
7	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	8 left	aux:pass
8	left	leave	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
9	at	at	ADP	_	10 home	case
10	home	home	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 left	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	leave	past · perfect · passive		their book of magic		home			vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Theme at home=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/1524-pg540-part21/e4/