Exam question 1 · Lang's Fairy Book, Esben and the Witch: Esben roasts the w…

Which phrase best describes the means by which Esben caused the death of the witch's daughter?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: phrase, Esben, daughter · What happens: describe, mean, cause, die · To what, where: death · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 1 of lesson 1659 «Lang's Fairy Book, Esben and the Witch: Esben roasts the witch, saves his brothers and goes home» 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 phrase	det
2	phrase	phrase	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 means	nsubj
3	best	well	ADV	Degree=Sup	4 describes	advmod
4	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 phrase	acl:relcl
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 means	nsubj
6	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	by	by	ADP	_	8 which	case
8	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 caused	obl
9	Esben	Esben	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 caused	nsubj
10	caused	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 means	ccomp
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 death	det
12	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 caused	obj
13	of	of	ADP	_	17 daughter	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 witch	det
15	witch	witch	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 daughter	nmod:poss
16	's	's	PART	_	15 witch	case
17	daughter	daughter	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 death	nmod
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 means	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	describe	present	which phrase not said here		well property	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent
2	mean	present	which phrase			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	cause	past	Esben	the death of the witch's daughter		vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition death=Patient
4	die		the witch's daughter			nom death «event intransitive»: of=agent

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 tricked her with a lie

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 tricked	nsubj
2	tricked	trick	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 tricked	obj
4	with	with	ADP	_	6 lie	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 lie	det
6	lie	lie	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 tricked	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	trick	past	He	her = she				with a lie	vn trick-59.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Patient

Option 2

He persuaded her to sit down and then shoved her into the fire

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 persuaded	nsubj
2	persuaded	persuade	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 persuaded	obj
4	to	to	PART	_	5 sit	mark
5	sit	sit	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 persuaded	xcomp
6	down	down	ADP	_	5 sit	compound:prt
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 shoved	cc
8	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	9 shoved	advmod
9	shoved	shove	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 persuaded	conj
10	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 shoved	obj
11	into	into	ADP	_	13 fire	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 fire	det
13	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 shoved	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	roles by
1	persuade	past	He	her = she			vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent she=Patient clause=Result
2	sit down	to-infinitive	her = she not said here				vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	shove	past	He not said here	her = she	the fire	then	vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent she=Theme into fire=Destination

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

He tricked her into sitting on the spade and tossed her into the flames

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 tricked	nsubj
2	tricked	trick	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 tricked	obj
4	into	into	SCONJ	_	5 sitting	mark
5	sitting	sit	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 tricked	advcl
6	on	on	ADP	_	8 spade	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 spade	det
8	spade	spade	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 sitting	obl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 tossed	cc
10	tossed	toss	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 tricked	conj
11	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 tossed	obj
12	into	into	ADP	_	14 flames	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 flames	det
14	flames	flame	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 tossed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	trick	past	He	her = she		vn trick-59.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Patient
2	sit	gerund	He not said here		the spade	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on spade=Location
3	toss	past	He not said here	her = she	the flames	vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent she=Patient into flame=Recipient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

He induced her to seat herself upon the oven spade and propelled her into the oven

The tree, 16 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 induced	nsubj
2	induced	induce	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 induced	obj
4	to	to	PART	_	5 seat	mark
5	seat	seat	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 induced	advcl
6	herself	herself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	2 induced	obl
7	upon	upon	ADP	_	10 spade	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 spade	det
9	oven	oven	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 spade	compound
10	spade	spade	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 induced	obl
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 propelled	cc
12	propelled	propel	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 induced	conj
13	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 propelled	obj
14	into	into	ADP	_	16 oven	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 oven	det
16	oven	oven	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 propelled	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	induce	past	He	her = she				upon the oven spade; herself = she obl	vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Patient
2	propel	past	He not said here	her = she		the oven			tree rules

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/1659-pg5615-part48/e1/