Exam question 3 · Fairy Tales from many lands, The Simpleton, the Simpleton…

By what means did the comrade with the straw prevent the Simpleton from being suffocated?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: comrade · What happens: mean, prevent, suffocate · To what, where: Simpleton · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1723 «Fairy Tales from many lands, The Simpleton, the Simpleton beats the King's impossible tasks and wins the Princess» 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	By	by	SCONJ	_	3 means	mark
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 means	nsubj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 prevent	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 comrade	det
6	comrade	comrade	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 prevent	nsubj
7	with	with	ADP	_	9 straw	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 straw	det
9	straw	straw	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 comrade	nmod
10	prevent	prevent	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 means	ccomp
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 Simpleton	det
12	Simpleton	Simpleton	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 prevent	obj
13	from	from	SCONJ	_	15 suffocated	mark
14	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	15 suffocated	aux:pass
15	suffocated	suffocate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 prevent	advcl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 means	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	mean	present			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	prevent	past · do-support	the comrade with the straw	the Simpleton	vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer simpleton=Theme
3	suffocate	gerund · passive	the comrade with the straw not said here		vn suffocate-40.7 «NP.theme V»

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 · ✓ the right answer

By scattering the straw, cooling the walls

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 scattering	mark
2	scattering	scatter	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 straw	det
4	straw	straw	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 scattering	obj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 cooling	punct
6	cooling	cool	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 scattering	conj
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 walls	det
8	walls	wall	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 cooling	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	scatter	gerund		the straw					vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent straw=Theme
2	cool	gerund		the walls					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent wall=Patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

By prayer

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	2 prayer	case
2	prayer	prayer	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

By opening the iron door wide

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 opening	mark
2	opening	open	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 door	det
4	iron	iron	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 door	amod
5	door	door	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 opening	obj
6	wide	wide	ADV	_	2 opening	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	open	gerund		the iron door				wide property	vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location door=Theme

Option 4

By pouring cold water on the floor

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 pouring	mark
2	pouring	pour	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 water	amod
4	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pouring	obj
5	on	on	ADP	_	7 floor	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 floor	det
7	floor	floor	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pouring	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pour	gerund		cold water		the floor			vn preparing-26.3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent water=Patient

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/1723-pg640-part47/e3/