Exam question 2 · Arabian Nights, The Monkey Who Could Write, part 16: the m…
What quality did the late grand-vizir possess that the Sultan sought in his successor?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: quality, late grand vizir, Sultan · What happens: do, possess, seek · To what, where: successor
This is exam question 2 of lesson 176 «Arabian Nights, The Monkey Who Could Write, part 16: the monkey's handwriting wins the Sultan's favour, and the princess reveals his secret» 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 | 3 did | obj |
| 2 | quality | quality | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 did | nsubj |
| 3 | did | do | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 vizir | det |
| 5 | late | late | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 vizir | amod |
| 6 | grand | grand | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 vizir | amod |
| 7 | - | - | PUNCT | _ | 6 grand | punct |
| 8 | vizir | vizir | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 possess | nsubj |
| 9 | possess | possess | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 did | parataxis |
| 10 | that | that | SCONJ | _ | 13 sought | mark |
| 11 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 Sultan | det |
| 12 | Sultan | Sultan | PROPN | Number=Sing | 13 sought | nsubj |
| 13 | sought | seek | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 9 possess | ccomp |
| 14 | in | in | ADP | _ | 16 successor | case |
| 15 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 16 successor | nmod:poss |
| 16 | successor | successor | NOUN | Number=Sing | 13 sought | obl |
| 17 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 3 did | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | do | past | quality | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality | |||||
| 2 | possess | present | the late grand vizir | tree rules | |||||
| 3 | seek | past | the Sultan | Sultan's successor | vn hunt-35.1 «NP V PP.theme PP.location»: agent=Agent in successor=Location |
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
Skill in beautiful handwriting and knowledge of many ancient languages
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Skill | skill | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 2 | in | in | ADP | _ | 4 handwriting | case |
| 3 | beautiful | beautiful | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 handwriting | amod |
| 4 | handwriting | handwriting | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Skill | nmod |
| 5 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 6 knowledge | cc |
| 6 | knowledge | knowledge | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 handwriting | conj |
| 7 | of | of | ADP | _ | 10 languages | case |
| 8 | many | many | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 10 languages | amod |
| 9 | ancient | ancient | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 10 languages | amod |
| 10 | languages | language | NOUN | Number=Plur | 6 knowledge | nmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2
Skill in beautiful handwriting and sharp wit
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Skill | skill | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 2 | in | in | ADP | _ | 4 handwriting | case |
| 3 | beautiful | beautiful | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 handwriting | amod |
| 4 | handwriting | handwriting | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Skill | nmod |
| 5 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 7 wit | cc |
| 6 | sharp | sharp | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 wit | amod |
| 7 | wit | wit | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Skill | conj |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3 · ✓ the right answer
Skill in beautiful handwriting
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Skill | skill | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 2 | in | in | ADP | _ | 4 handwriting | case |
| 3 | beautiful | beautiful | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 handwriting | amod |
| 4 | handwriting | handwriting | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Skill | nmod |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4
Mastery of fine calligraphy
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mastery | mastery | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 2 | of | of | ADP | _ | 4 calligraphy | case |
| 3 | fine | fine | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 calligraphy | amod |
| 4 | calligraphy | calligraphy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Mastery | nmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | master | fine calligraphy | nom mastery «cognition transitive»: of=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/176-pg128-part16/e2/