Exam question 4 · Popular Tales from the Norse, Strong Hans, part 21: Hans o…

What was the nature of the creature encountered in Devilmoss Lake, and how was it overcome?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: nature · What happens: be, encounter, overcome · To what, where: Devilmoss Lake, nature

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1632 «Popular Tales from the Norse, Strong Hans, part 21: Hans outwits the squire's plots and beats Old Eric at Devilmoss Lake» 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	8 encountered	obj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 nature	det
4	nature	nature	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 encountered	nsubj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 creature	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 creature	det
7	creature	creature	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 nature	nmod
8	encountered	encounter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 Lake	case
10	Devilmoss	Devilmoss	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 Lake	compound
11	Lake	Lake	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 encountered	obl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 overcome	punct
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 overcome	cc
14	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	17 overcome	advmod
15	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	17 overcome	aux:pass
16	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	17 overcome	nsubj:pass
17	overcome	overcome	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 encountered	conj
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 encountered	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	is a	past				tree rules
2	encounter	past	the nature of the creature		Devilmoss Lake	vn encounter-30.5 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer
3	overcome	past · passive		nature		vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

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

A huge lake monster with long arms and a slimy body, which was finally knocked flat by many heavy blows from a wooden staff

The tree, 24 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 monster	det
2	huge	huge	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 monster	amod
3	lake	lake	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 monster	compound
4	monster	monster	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 arms	case
6	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 arms	amod
7	arms	arm	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 monster	nmod
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 body	cc
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 body	det
10	slimy	slimy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 body	amod
11	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 arms	conj
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 knocked	punct
13	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	16 knocked	nsubj:pass
14	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	16 knocked	aux:pass
15	finally	finally	ADV	_	16 knocked	advmod
16	knocked	knock	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 arms	acl
17	flat	flat	ADV	_	16 knocked	advmod
18	by	by	ADP	_	21 blows	case
19	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	21 blows	amod
20	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	21 blows	amod
21	blows	blow	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 knocked	obl:agent
22	from	from	ADP	_	25 staff	case
23	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	25 staff	det
24	wooden	wooden	ADJ	Degree=Pos	25 staff	amod
25	staff	staff	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 blows	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	knock	past · passive	many heavy blows from a wooden staff	long arms and a slimy body				finally, flat property	vn split-23.2 «NP V NP apart»: agent=Agent subject=Patient

Option 2

A creature that was struck by an oar

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 creature	det
2	creature	creature	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 struck	nsubj:pass
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 struck	aux:pass
5	struck	strike	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 creature	acl:relcl
6	by	by	ADP	_	8 oar	case
7	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 oar	det
8	oar	oar	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 struck	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	strike	past · passive	a oar	a creature					vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient

Option 3

A huge eel, killed with a stout pole

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 eel	det
2	huge	huge	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 eel	amod
3	eel	eel	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 killed	punct
5	killed	kill	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 eel	acl
6	with	with	ADP	_	9 pole	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 pole	det
8	stout	stout	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 pole	compound
9	pole	pole	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 killed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	kill	participle		a huge eel not said here				with a stout pole	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Old Eric, who was flattened by repeated blows of a staff

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 Eric	amod
2	Eric	Eric	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 flattened	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 flattened	punct
4	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 flattened	nsubj
5	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 flattened	aux:pass
6	flattened	flatten	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	by	by	ADP	_	9 blows	case
8	repeated	repeat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 blows	amod
9	blows	blow	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 flattened	obl
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 staff	case
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 staff	det
12	staff	staff	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 blows	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	flatten	past · passive	repeated blows of a staff	Old Eric	vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient
2	repeat	participle			vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality
3	blow		a staff		nom blow «act intransitive»: of=agent

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/1632-pg5615-part21/e4/