Exam question 1 · Norse Tales, Minnikin, part 72: Minnikin rescues the secon…

Which action did Minnikin perform in order to enlarge the vessel sufficiently to accommodate the cargo and crew?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: action · What happens: perform, enlarge, accommodate · To what, where: order, vessel, cargo

This is exam question 1 of lesson 1575 «Norse Tales, Minnikin, part 72: Minnikin rescues the second Princess from the Troll, brews the deadly ale, then is struck by his brother» 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	Which	which	DET	PronType=Int	2 action	det
2	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 perform	nsubj
3	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 perform	aux
4	Minnikin	Minnikin	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 perform	nsubj
5	perform	perform	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 order	case
7	order	order	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 perform	obl
8	to	to	PART	_	9 enlarge	mark
9	enlarge	enlarge	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 perform	xcomp
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 vessel	det
11	vessel	vessel	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 enlarge	obj
12	sufficiently	sufficiently	ADV	_	9 enlarge	advmod
13	to	to	PART	_	14 accommodate	mark
14	accommodate	accommodate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 enlarge	advcl
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 cargo	det
16	cargo	cargo	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 accommodate	obj
17	and	and	CCONJ	_	18 crew	cc
18	crew	crew	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 cargo	conj
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 perform	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	perform	past · do-support	which action		order		tree rules
2	enlarge	to-infinitive	which action not said here	the vessel		sufficiently property	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent vessel=Patient
3	accommodate	to-infinitive	which action not said here	the cargo and crew			vn adjust-26.9 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cargo=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

He placed the links of the cable into the vessel and spoke a magic word over it

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 placed	nsubj
2	placed	place	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 links	det
4	links	link	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 placed	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 cable	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 cable	det
7	cable	cable	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 links	nmod
8	into	into	ADP	_	10 vessel	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 vessel	det
10	vessel	vessel	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 placed	obl
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 spoke	cc
12	spoke	speak	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 placed	conj
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 word	det
14	magic	magic	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 word	compound
15	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 spoke	obj
16	over	over	ADP	_	17 it	case
17	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 spoke	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	place	past	He	the links of the cable		the vessel			vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent link=Theme
2	speak speech: other	past	He not said here	a magic word		word			tree rules

Option 2

He placed the rope into the water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 placed	nsubj
2	placed	place	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 rope	det
4	rope	rope	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 placed	obj
5	into	into	ADP	_	7 water	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 water	det
7	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 placed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	place	past	He	the rope		the water			vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent rope=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

He carefully lowered the whole coil of cable into the little ship's hold to enlarge it

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 lowered	nsubj
2	carefully	carefully	ADV	_	3 lowered	advmod
3	lowered	lower	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 coil	det
5	whole	whole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 coil	amod
6	coil	coil	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lowered	obj
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 cable	case
8	cable	cable	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 coil	nmod
9	into	into	ADP	_	14 hold	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 ship	det
11	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 ship	amod
12	ship	ship	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 hold	nmod:poss
13	's	's	PART	_	12 ship	case
14	hold	hold	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lowered	obl
15	to	to	PART	_	16 enlarge	mark
16	enlarge	enlarge	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 lowered	advcl
17	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 enlarge	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	lower	past	He	the whole coil of cable	the little ship's hold	carefully property	vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent coil=Theme into hold=Destination
2	enlarge	to-infinitive	He not said here	coil			vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent it=Patient
3	hold			the little ship			nom hold «act transitive»: poss=patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

He placed links of the cable into the vessel

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 placed	nsubj
2	placed	place	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	links	link	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 placed	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 cable	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 cable	det
6	cable	cable	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 links	nmod
7	into	into	ADP	_	9 vessel	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 vessel	det
9	vessel	vessel	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 placed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	place	past	He	links of the cable		the vessel			vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent link=Theme

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/1575-pg540-part72/e1/