Exam question 2 · Lang's Fairy Book, The Emperor's New Clothes: the Emperor…

In what manner did the impostors conduct their ostensible labour upon the looms throughout the period before the procession?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: impostors · What happens: conduct · To what, where: ostensible labour, manner

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1683 «Lang's Fairy Book, The Emperor's New Clothes: the Emperor parades in nothing» 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	In	in	ADP	_	3 manner	case
2	what	what	DET	PronType=Int	3 manner	det
3	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 conduct	obl
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 conduct	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 impostors	det
6	impostors	impostor	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 conduct	nsubj
7	conduct	conduct	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 labour	nmod:poss
9	ostensible	ostensible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 labour	amod
10	labour	labour	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 conduct	obj
11	upon	upon	ADP	_	13 looms	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 looms	det
13	looms	loom	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 conduct	obl
14	throughout	throughout	ADP	_	16 period	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 period	det
16	period	period	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 conduct	obl
17	before	before	ADP	_	19 procession	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 procession	det
19	procession	procession	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 conduct	obl
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 conduct	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	conduct	past · do-support	the impostors	impostors's ostensible labour		what manner	throughout the period; before the procession	upon the looms	vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent labour=Theme in manner=Destination

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

They pretended to work upon empty looms, day and night, until the procession was ready

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 pretended	nsubj
2	pretended	pretend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 work	mark
4	work	work	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 pretended	xcomp
5	upon	upon	ADP	_	7 looms	case
6	empty	empty	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 looms	amod
7	looms	loom	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 work	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 day	punct
9	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 looms	appos
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 night	cc
11	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 day	conj
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 ready	punct
13	until	until	SCONJ	_	17 ready	mark
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 procession	det
15	procession	procession	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 ready	nsubj
16	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	17 ready	cop
17	ready	ready	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 pretended	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	pretend	past	They		tree rules
2	work	to-infinitive	They not said here	upon empty looms	vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	is	past	the procession	ready property	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

They pretended to work upon empty looms

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 pretended	nsubj
2	pretended	pretend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 work	mark
4	work	work	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 pretended	xcomp
5	upon	upon	ADP	_	7 looms	case
6	empty	empty	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 looms	amod
7	looms	loom	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 work	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pretend	past	They						tree rules
2	work	to-infinitive	They not said here					upon empty looms	vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

They feigned weaving on bare looms

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 feigned	nsubj
2	feigned	feign	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	weaving	weave	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 feigned	xcomp
4	on	on	ADP	_	6 looms	case
5	bare	bare	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 looms	amod
6	looms	loom	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 weaving	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	feign	past	They						tree rules
2	weave	gerund	They not said here			bare looms			vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on loom=Trajectory

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

They worked on the empty frames

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 worked	nsubj
2	worked	work	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	on	on	ADP	_	6 frames	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 frames	det
5	empty	empty	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 frames	amod
6	frames	frame	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 worked	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	work	past	They					on the empty frames	vn employment-95.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent on frame=Theme

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/1683-pg640-part7/e2/