Exam question 4 · Popular Tales from the Norse, Cinderlad, part 78: Cinderla…

Which of the following most accurately describes the question the youngest foal put to Cinderlad at the close of this part?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, describe, put · To what, where: question, youngest foal, Cinderlad, close

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1581 «Popular Tales from the Norse, Cinderlad, part 78: Cinderlad sets out to watch the seven foals and meets the old hag» 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	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 following	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	4 following	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 following	det
4	following	follow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	6 accurately	advmod
6	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	7 describes	advmod
7	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 following	advcl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 question	det
9	question	question	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 describes	obj
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 foal	det
11	youngest	young	ADJ	Degree=Sup	12 foal	amod
12	foal	foal	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 question	appos
13	put	put	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	12 foal	acl
14	to	to	ADP	_	15 Cinderlad	case
15	Cinderlad	Cinderlad	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 put	obl
16	at	at	ADP	_	18 close	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 close	det
18	close	close	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 put	obl
19	of	of	ADP	_	21 part	case
20	this	this	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	21 part	det
21	part	part	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 close	nmod
22	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 following	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	to whom	where	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund					vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	describe	present	the question			accurately property	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent question=Theme
3	put	participle	the youngest foal not said here	Cinderlad	the close of this part		vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent at close=Destination

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 foal asked him whether he could see the road ahead

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 foal	det
2	foal	foal	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 asked	nsubj
3	asked	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 asked	iobj
5	whether	whether	SCONJ	_	8 see	mark
6	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 see	nsubj
7	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 see	aux
8	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 asked	xcomp
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 road	det
10	road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 see	obj
11	ahead	ahead	ADV	_	8 see	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ask speech: ask	past	the foal		him = he				vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S»: agent=Agent he=Recipient clause=Topic
2	see not said to happen	could	foal	the road				ahead property	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer road=Stimulus

Option 2

The foal asked whether he could see anything at that moment, and he said no

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 foal	det
2	foal	foal	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 asked	nsubj
3	asked	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	whether	whether	SCONJ	_	7 see	mark
5	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 see	nsubj
6	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 see	aux
7	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 asked	ccomp
8	anything	anything	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	7 see	obj
9	at	at	ADP	_	11 moment	case
10	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	11 moment	det
11	moment	moment	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 see	obl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 said	punct
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 said	cc
14	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 said	nsubj
15	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 asked	parataxis
16	no	no	INTJ	Polarity=Neg	15 said	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	roles by
1	ask speech: ask	past	the foal			vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	see	could	foal	anything	moment	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer anything=Stimulus
3	say speech: assert	past	foal			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent no=Topic

Option 3

The foal asked whether he could see anything at that moment over the hills and the cleft

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 foal	det
2	foal	foal	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 asked	nsubj
3	asked	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	whether	whether	SCONJ	_	7 see	mark
5	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 see	nsubj
6	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 see	aux
7	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 asked	ccomp
8	anything	anything	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	7 see	obj
9	at	at	ADP	_	11 moment	case
10	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	11 moment	det
11	moment	moment	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 see	obl
12	over	over	ADP	_	14 hills	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 hills	det
14	hills	hill	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 moment	nmod
15	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 cleft	cc
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 cleft	det
17	cleft	cleft	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 moment	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ask speech: ask	past	the foal						vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	see	could	foal	anything			moment		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer anything=Stimulus

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The foal asked whether he could see anything at that moment

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 foal	det
2	foal	foal	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 asked	nsubj
3	asked	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	whether	whether	SCONJ	_	7 see	mark
5	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 see	nsubj
6	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 see	aux
7	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 asked	ccomp
8	anything	anything	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	7 see	obj
9	at	at	ADP	_	11 moment	case
10	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	11 moment	det
11	moment	moment	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 see	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ask speech: ask	past	the foal						vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	see	could	foal	anything			moment		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer anything=Stimulus

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/1581-pg540-part78/e4/