Exam question 4 · Crimson Fairy Book, The Flying Ship, part 46: the Simpleto…

What is the principal characteristic of the straw carried by the final traveller?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: principal characteristic · What happens: be, carry · To what, where: straw

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1722 «Crimson Fairy Book, The Flying Ship, part 46: the Simpleton gathers strange companions for his ship» 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	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 characteristic	det
4	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 characteristic	amod
5	characteristic	characteristic	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 straw	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 straw	det
8	straw	straw	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 characteristic	nmod
9	carried	carry	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 straw	acl
10	by	by	ADP	_	13 traveller	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 traveller	det
12	final	final	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 traveller	amod
13	traveller	traveller	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 carried	obl
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the principal characteristic of the straw						tree rules
2	carry	participle		the straw not said here				by the final traveller	vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=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 · ← Mova's choice

It brings cold weather and frost when burned

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 brings	nsubj
2	brings	bring	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 weather	amod
4	weather	weather	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 brings	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 frost	cc
6	frost	frost	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 weather	conj
7	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	8 burned	advmod
8	burned	burn	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 brings	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	bring	present	It	cold weather and frost					vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent weather=Theme
2	burn	participle							vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

It causes warm breezes and sunshine when thrown

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 causes	nsubj
2	causes	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	warm	warm	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 breezes	amod
4	breezes	breeze	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 causes	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 sunshine	cc
6	sunshine	sunshine	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 breezes	conj
7	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	8 thrown	advmod
8	thrown	throw	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 causes	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cause	present	It	warm breezes and sunshine					vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition breeze=Patient
2	throw	participle							vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer

Option 3

It causes cold weather and snowfall when scattered, freezing all folk who stand near it

The tree, 15 words

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 causes	nsubj
2	causes	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 weather	amod
4	weather	weather	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 causes	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 snowfall	cc
6	snowfall	snowfall	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 weather	conj
7	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	8 scattered	advmod
8	scattered	scatter	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 causes	advcl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 freezing	punct
10	freezing	freeze	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 causes	advcl
11	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	12 folk	det
12	folk	folk	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 freezing	obj
13	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	14 stand	nsubj
14	stand	stand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 folk	acl:relcl
15	near	near	ADP	_	16 it	case
16	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 stand	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	cause	present	It	cold weather and snowfall		vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition weather=Patient
2	scatter	participle				vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme
3	freeze	gerund		all folk		vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient folk=Result
4	stand	present	all folk		folk	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent near it=Location

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It causes cold weather and snowfall when scattered

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 causes	nsubj
2	causes	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 weather	amod
4	weather	weather	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 causes	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 snowfall	cc
6	snowfall	snowfall	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 weather	conj
7	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	8 scattered	advmod
8	scattered	scatter	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 causes	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cause	present	It	cold weather and snowfall					vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition weather=Patient
2	scatter	participle							vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=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.

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