Exam question 4 · The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Wicked Witch of the West,…

By what means did the Scarecrow render the stinging bees harmless to Dorothy and her companions?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: mean, do, render, sting · To what, where: Scarecrow, stinging bees · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1600 «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Wicked Witch of the West, part 15: wolves, crows and bees all fail, so the Witch reaches for her Golden Cap» 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	By	by	SCONJ	_	3 means	mark
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 means	nsubj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 render	advcl
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 means	ccomp
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Scarecrow	det
6	Scarecrow	scarecrow	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
7	render	render	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 bees	det
9	stinging	sting	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	10 bees	amod
10	bees	bee	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 render	obj
11	harmless	harmless	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 render	xcomp
12	to	to	ADP	_	13 Dorothy	case
13	Dorothy	Dorothy	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 harmless	obl
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 companions	cc
15	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 companions	nmod:poss
16	companions	companion	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 Dorothy	conj
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 render	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	mean	present			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	do	past	the Scarecrow		vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent scarecrow=Eventuality
3	render	present	the stinging bees	harmless property	vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bee=Theme
4	sting	gerund			vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer

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

With straw

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	With	with	ADP	_	2 straw	case
2	straw	straw	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

By covering them with dust

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 covering	mark
2	covering	cover	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 covering	obj
4	with	with	ADP	_	5 dust	case
5	dust	dust	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 covering	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cover	gerund		them = they				with dust	vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent they=Destination with dust=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

By scattering straw over them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 scattering	mark
2	scattering	scatter	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	straw	straw	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 scattering	obj
4	over	over	ADP	_	5 them	case
5	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 scattering	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	scatter	gerund		straw				over them = they	vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent straw=Theme over they=Destination

Option 4

By burning them with fire

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 burning	mark
2	burning	burn	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 burning	obj
4	with	with	ADP	_	5 fire	case
5	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 burning	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	burn	gerund		them = they				with fire	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent they=Patient with fire=Instrument

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/1600-pg55-part15/e4/