Exam question 1 · Russian Folk-Tales, Vassili and Mark the Rich, part 6: Vas…

Which of the following describes the action Vassili undertakes towards the old oak upon his return journey?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: action · What happens: follow, describe, undertake, journey

This is exam question 1 of lesson 1755 «Russian Folk-Tales, Vassili and Mark the Rich, part 6: Vassili visits the Serpent King and tricks him out of Mark's ships» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 describes	obj
2	of	of	SCONJ	_	5 describes	mark
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 following	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 describes	nsubj
5	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 undertakes	advcl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 action	det
7	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 undertakes	nsubj
8	Vassili	Vassili	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 action	appos
9	undertakes	undertake	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	towards	towards	ADP	_	13 oak	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 oak	det
12	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 oak	amod
13	oak	oak	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 undertakes	obl
14	upon	upon	ADP	_	17 journey	case
15	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 journey	nmod:poss
16	return	return	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 journey	compound
17	journey	journey	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 oak	nmod
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	9 undertakes	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	describe	present			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent which=Theme
3	undertake	present	the action	towards the old oak upon action's return journey	vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality
4	journey		action		nom journey «act transitive»: poss=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

He strikes it hard with an axe until it splits

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 strikes	nsubj
2	strikes	strike	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 strikes	obj
4	hard	hard	ADV	Degree=Pos	2 strikes	advmod
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 axe	case
6	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 axe	det
7	axe	axe	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 strikes	obl
8	until	until	SCONJ	_	10 splits	mark
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 splits	nsubj
10	splits	split	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 strikes	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	strike	present	He	it				with a axe; hard property	vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent it=Patient with axe=Instrument
2	split	present	axe						vn break-45.1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 2

He applies pressure with his foot until the oak collapses onto the road and blocks the path behind him completely

The tree, 20 words

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 applies	nsubj
2	applies	apply	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	pressure	pressure	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 applies	obj
4	with	with	ADP	_	6 foot	case
5	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 foot	nmod:poss
6	foot	foot	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 applies	obl
7	until	until	SCONJ	_	10 collapses	mark
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 oak	det
9	oak	oak	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 collapses	nsubj
10	collapses	collapse	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 applies	advcl
11	onto	onto	ADP	_	13 road	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 road	det
13	road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 collapses	obl
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 blocks	cc
15	blocks	block	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 applies	conj
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 path	det
17	path	path	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 blocks	obj
18	behind	behind	ADP	_	19 him	case
19	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	17 path	nmod
20	completely	completely	ADV	_	15 blocks	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	apply	present	He	pressure		with his foot	vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pressure=Theme
2	collapse	present	the oak		the road		vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
3	block	present	He not said here	the path		behind oak; completely property	vn concealment-16 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent path=Patient behind he=Location

Option 3

He kicks it with a heavy boot until it falls

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 kicks	nsubj
2	kicks	kick	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 kicks	obj
4	with	with	ADP	_	7 boot	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 boot	det
6	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 boot	amod
7	boot	boot	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 kicks	obl
8	until	until	SCONJ	_	10 falls	mark
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 falls	nsubj
10	falls	fall	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 kicks	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	kick	present	He	it				with a heavy boot	vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent it=Patient with boot=Instrument
2	fall	present	boot						vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

He applies pressure with his foot until the oak collapses

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 applies	nsubj
2	applies	apply	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	pressure	pressure	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 applies	obj
4	with	with	ADP	_	6 foot	case
5	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 foot	nmod:poss
6	foot	foot	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 applies	obl
7	until	until	SCONJ	_	10 collapses	mark
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 oak	det
9	oak	oak	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 collapses	nsubj
10	collapses	collapse	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 applies	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	apply	present	He	pressure				with his foot	vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pressure=Theme
2	collapse	present	the oak						vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=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/1755-pg641-part6/e1/