Exam question 4 · fairy tales, The Prince in the Old Man's House, part 15: t…

Why did the old man fail to obtain milk from the black cow, and what did he conclude from the prince's work?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: old man fail, fail, prince · What happens: obtain, conclude, work · To what, where: milk, work

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1764 «fairy tales, The Prince in the Old Man's House, part 15: the prince is set a hay task and tricks a horse and a cow» 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	8 obtain	advmod
2	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 obtain	aux
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 fail	det
4	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 fail	amod
5	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 fail	compound
6	fail	fail	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 obtain	nsubj
7	to	to	PART	_	8 obtain	mark
8	obtain	obtain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
9	milk	milk	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 obtain	obj
10	from	from	ADP	_	13 cow	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 cow	det
12	black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 cow	amod
13	cow	cow	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 obtain	obl
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 conclude	punct
15	and	and	CCONJ	_	19 conclude	cc
16	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	19 conclude	obj
17	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	19 conclude	aux
18	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 conclude	nsubj
19	conclude	conclude	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 obtain	conj
20	from	from	ADP	_	24 work	case
21	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	22 prince	det
22	prince	prince	NOUN	Number=Sing	24 work	nmod:poss
23	's	's	PART	_	22 prince	case
24	work	work	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 conclude	obl
25	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 obtain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	obtain	past · do-support	the old man fail	milk		from the black cow	vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent milk=Theme from cow=Source
2	conclude	past · do-support	fail		the prince's work		vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent what=Theme from work=Source
3	work		the prince				nom work «act intransitive»: 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

The cow had already run dry before the prince came, and he suspected outside aid from the maid

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cow	det
2	cow	cow	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 run	nsubj:pass
3	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 run	aux
4	already	already	ADV	_	5 run	advmod
5	run	run	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	dry	dry	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 run	obj
7	before	before	SCONJ	_	10 came	mark
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 prince	det
9	prince	prince	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 came	nsubj
10	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 run	advcl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 suspected	punct
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 suspected	cc
13	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 suspected	nsubj
14	suspected	suspect	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 run	parataxis
15	outside	outside	ADP	_	16 aid	case
16	aid	aid	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 suspected	obl
17	from	from	ADP	_	19 maid	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 maid	det
19	maid	maid	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 suspected	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	run	past · perfect · passive		the cow		vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: subject=Beneficiary dry=Product
2	come	past	the prince			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	suspect	past	prince		outside aid; from the maid	vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The cow had already run dry, and he suspected outside aid

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cow	det
2	cow	cow	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 run	nsubj:pass
3	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 run	aux
4	already	already	ADV	_	5 run	advmod
5	run	run	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 run	xcomp
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 suspected	punct
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 suspected	cc
9	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 suspected	nsubj
10	suspected	suspect	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 run	conj
11	outside	outside	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 aid	amod
12	aid	aid	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 suspected	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	run	past · perfect · passive		the cow				dry property	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Agent
2	suspect	past	he	outside aid					vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent aid=Attribute

Option 3

The cow was dry, and he thought the prince lazy

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cow	det
2	cow	cow	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 dry	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 dry	cop
4	dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 thought	punct
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 thought	cc
7	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 thought	nsubj
8	thought	think	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 dry	parataxis
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 prince	det
10	prince	prince	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 thought	obj
11	lazy	lazy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 thought	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the cow					dry property	tree rules
2	think speech: other	past	he	the prince				lazy property	vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot prince=Theme

Option 4

The cow had run dry, and he suspected theft

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cow	det
2	cow	cow	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 run	nsubj:pass
3	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 run	aux
4	run	run	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 run	xcomp
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 suspected	punct
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 suspected	cc
8	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 suspected	nsubj
9	suspected	suspect	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 run	parataxis
10	theft	theft	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 suspected	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	run	past · perfect · passive		the cow				dry property	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Agent
2	suspect	past	he	theft					vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent theft=Attribute

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/1764-pg641-part15/e4/