Exam question 2 · Fairy Tales, Stan and the Dragon, part 21: Stan outwits th…

State the manner in which Stan persuaded the dragon to relinquish his right to the water supply.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, Stan, dragon · What happens: state, persuade, relinquish · To what, where: manner, dragon, right, water supply

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1770 «Fairy Tales, Stan and the Dragon, part 21: Stan outwits the dragon and his mother» 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	State	state	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 manner	det
3	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 State	obj
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 persuaded	obl
6	Stan	Stan	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 persuaded	nsubj
7	persuaded	persuade	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 manner	acl:relcl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 dragon	det
9	dragon	dragon	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 persuaded	obj
10	to	to	PART	_	11 relinquish	mark
11	relinquish	relinquish	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 persuaded	xcomp
12	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 right	nmod:poss
13	right	right	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 relinquish	obj
14	to	to	ADP	_	17 supply	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 supply	det
16	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 supply	compound
17	supply	supply	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 relinquish	obl
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 State	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	roles by
1	state speech: other	imperative	you not said here	the manner			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent manner=Topic
2	persuade	past	Stan	the dragon		the manner	vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent dragon=Patient clause=Result
3	relinquish	to-infinitive	the dragon not said here	Stan's right	the water supply		vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent right=Theme to supply=Recipient

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

through a clever bet about the moon

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	through	through	ADP	_	4 bet	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 bet	det
3	clever	clever	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 bet	amod
4	bet	bet	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	about	about	ADP	_	7 moon	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 moon	det
7	moon	moon	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 bet	nmod

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

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

by threatening to take the brook away

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 threatening	mark
2	threatening	threaten	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 take	mark
4	take	take	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 threatening	xcomp
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 brook	det
6	brook	brook	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 take	obj
7	away	away	ADV	_	4 take	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	threaten	gerund							tree rules
2	take away not said to happen	to-infinitive		the brook				away property	vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent brook=Theme

Option 3

by promising to share the forest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 promising	mark
2	promising	promise	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 share	mark
4	share	share	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 promising	xcomp
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 forest	det
6	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 share	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	promise speech: promise	gerund							vn promise-37.13 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	share not said to happen	to-infinitive		the forest					tree rules

Option 4

by threatening to throw the moon and the brook into the forest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 threatening	mark
2	threatening	threaten	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 throw	mark
4	throw	throw	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 threatening	xcomp
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 moon	det
6	moon	moon	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 throw	obj
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 brook	cc
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 brook	det
9	brook	brook	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 moon	conj
10	into	into	ADP	_	12 forest	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 forest	det
12	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 throw	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	threaten	gerund							tree rules
2	throw not said to happen	to-infinitive		the moon and the brook				into the forest result	vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Causer moon=Theme into forest=Result

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/1770-pg641-part21/e2/