Exam question 3 · Russian Fairy Tales, Martin the Peasant, part 42: Martin's…

What reason did the old woman give for refusing to carry out the errand?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: old woman · What happens: give, refuse, not carry out · To what, where: errand

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1718 «Russian Fairy Tales, Martin the Peasant, part 42: Martin's mother goes to the King to woo his daughter» 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	7 give	obl
2	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
3	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 give	aux
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 woman	det
5	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 woman	amod
6	woman	woman	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 give	nsubj
7	give	give	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	for	for	SCONJ	_	9 refusing	mark
9	refusing	refuse	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 give	advcl
10	to	to	PART	_	11 carry	mark
11	carry	carry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 refusing	xcomp
12	out	out	ADP	_	11 carry	compound:prt
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 errand	det
14	errand	errand	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 carry	obj
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 give	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	give	past · do-support	the old woman		vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
2	refuse	gerund	the old woman not said here		vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
3	not carry out	to-infinitive	the old woman not said here	the errand	vn act-114 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent errand=Eventuality

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

that the trip would cost them money

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	that	that	SCONJ	_	5 cost	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 trip	det
3	trip	trip	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 cost	nsubj
4	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 cost	aux
5	cost	cost	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 cost	obj
7	money	money	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 cost	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cost	would	the trip	them = they					vn cost-54.2 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Theme they=Beneficiary money=Value

Option 2

it was too far

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 was	nsubj
2	was	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	too	too	ADV	_	4 far	advmod
4	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	2 was	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	be	past	it					far property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

that the venture endangered their lives

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	that	that	SCONJ	_	4 endangered	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 venture	det
3	venture	venture	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 endangered	nsubj
4	endangered	endanger	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 lives	nmod:poss
6	lives	life	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 endangered	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	endanger	past	the venture	their lives					tree rules

Option 4

that the King had forbidden visits

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	that	that	SCONJ	_	5 forbidden	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 King	det
3	King	King	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 forbidden	nsubj
4	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 forbidden	aux
5	forbidden	forbid	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 visits	amod
6	visits	visit	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	forbid	past · perfect	the King						vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Causer

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/1718-pg640-part42/e3/