Exam question 2 · Arabian Nights, The Young King of the Black Isles, part 8:…

What was the nature of the enchantment that had transformed the young king?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: nature, enchantment · What happens: be, transform · To what, where: young king

This is exam question 2 of lesson 168 «Arabian Nights, The Young King of the Black Isles, part 8: the talking fish and the Sultan's night journey» 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	_	7 enchantment	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 enchantment	det
7	enchantment	enchantment	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 nature	nmod
8	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 transformed	nsubj
9	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 transformed	aux
10	transformed	transform	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	7 enchantment	acl:relcl
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 king	det
12	young	young	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 king	amod
13	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 transformed	obj
14	?	?	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 enchantment						tree rules
2	transform	past · perfect	the enchantment	the young king					vn turn-26.6.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent king=Patient

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 was cursed by a wicked witch

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	3 cursed	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 cursed	aux:pass
3	cursed	curse	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	7 witch	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 witch	det
6	wicked	wicked	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 witch	amod
7	witch	witch	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 cursed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	curse	past · passive	a wicked witch	He					vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme

Option 2

He became a slave of the lake

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 became	nsubj
2	became	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 slave	det
4	slave	slave	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 became	xcomp
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 lake	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 lake	det
7	lake	lake	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 slave	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	past	He	a slave of the lake					vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

He became half man and half marble

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 became	nsubj
2	became	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	half	half	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Frac	4 man	amod
4	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 became	xcomp
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 marble	cc
6	half	half	NOUN	Number=Sing NumForm=Word NumType=Frac	7 marble	compound
7	marble	marble	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 man	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	past	He	half man and half marble					vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

He turned to stone

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 turned	nsubj
2	turned	turn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	ADP	_	4 stone	case
4	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 turned	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	turn	past	He			stone			vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme to stone=Trajectory

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/168-pg128-part8/e2/