Exam question 4 · Fairy Book, The Six Swans: the silent sister saves her bro…

What was the nature of the Dragon's protection against weapons?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: nature, Dragon · What happens: be, protect

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1679 «Fairy Book, The Six Swans: the silent sister saves her brothers but is condemned to burn» 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	root	root
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	1 What	nsubj
5	of	of	ADP	_	9 protection	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 Dragon	det
7	Dragon	Dragon	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 protection	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 Dragon	case
9	protection	protection	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 nature	nmod
10	against	against	ADP	_	11 weapons	case
11	weapons	weapon	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 protection	nmod
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	the nature of the Dragon's protection against weapons						tree rules
2	protect		the Dragon					against weapons	nom protection «act transitive»: poss=agent against=obl

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

Nothing could harm it because its scales were harder than any stone, iron, or steel known to men.

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	3 harm	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 harm	aux
3	harm	harm	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 harm	obj
5	because	because	SCONJ	_	9 harder	mark
6	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 scales	nmod:poss
7	scales	scale	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 harder	nsubj
8	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 harder	cop
9	harder	hard	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 harm	advcl
10	than	than	ADP	_	12 stone	case
11	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	12 stone	det
12	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 harder	obl
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 iron	punct
14	iron	iron	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 stone	conj
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 steel	punct
16	or	or	CCONJ	_	17 steel	cc
17	steel	steel	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 iron	conj
18	known	know	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	17 steel	acl
19	to	to	ADP	_	20 men	case
20	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	18 known	obl
21	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 harm	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	harm	could	Nothing	it		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus it=Experiencer
2	is	past	its scales		than any stone and iron or steel; hard property	tree rules
3	know	participle		steel not said here	to men	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer

Option 2

Its scales were so hard that no sword, spear, or arrow could ever pierce them at all.

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 scales	nmod:poss
2	scales	scale	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 hard	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 hard	cop
4	so	so	ADV	_	5 hard	advmod
5	hard	hard	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	that	that	SCONJ	_	8 sword	mark
7	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	8 sword	det
8	sword	sword	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 hard	ccomp
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 spear	punct
10	spear	spear	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 sword	conj
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 pierce	punct
12	or	or	CCONJ	_	16 pierce	cc
13	arrow	arrow	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 pierce	nsubj
14	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	16 pierce	aux
15	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	16 pierce	advmod
16	pierce	pierce	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 hard	conj
17	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 pierce	obj
18	at	at	ADP	_	19 all	case
19	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	16 pierce	obl
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 hard	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	Its scales					hard property	tree rules
2	pierce	could	arrow	scales = scale		all	ever		vn poke-19-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Its skin could not be pierced by blades.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 skin	nmod:poss
2	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 pierced	nsubj:pass
3	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 pierced	aux
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	6 pierced	advmod
5	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 pierced	aux:pass
6	pierced	pierce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	by	by	ADP	_	8 blades	case
8	blades	blade	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 pierced	obl
9	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 pierced	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not pierce	could · passive	blades	Its skin					vn poke-19-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Its scales were harder than stone or metal.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 scales	nmod:poss
2	scales	scale	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 harder	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 harder	cop
4	harder	hard	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
5	than	than	ADP	_	6 stone	case
6	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 harder	obl
7	or	or	CCONJ	_	8 metal	cc
8	metal	metal	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 stone	conj
9	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 harder	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	Its scales					than stone or metal; hard property	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/1679-pg640-part3/e4/