Exam question 3 · Eastern tales, Hassebu, part 47: Hassebu is left to die in…

Specify the reason the Sultan's physicians prescribed the flesh of the King of the Snakes.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, physicians · What happens: specify, prescribe · To what, where: reason, flesh

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1796 «Eastern tales, Hassebu, part 47: Hassebu is left to die in a honey pit, escapes through a scorpion's hole, and is caught at the baths» 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	Specify	specify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Specify	obj
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 Sultan	det
5	Sultan	Sultan	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 physicians	nmod:poss
6	's	's	PART	_	5 Sultan	case
7	physicians	physician	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 prescribed	nsubj
8	prescribed	prescribe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	acl:relcl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 flesh	det
10	flesh	flesh	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 prescribed	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 King	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 King	det
13	King	King	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 flesh	nmod
14	of	of	ADP	_	16 Snakes	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 Snakes	det
16	Snakes	snake	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 King	nmod
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Specify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	specify	imperative	you not said here	the reason					vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	prescribe	past	the Sultan's physicians	the flesh of the King of the Snakes					tree rules

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

Only the blood could heal the wound

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Only	only	ADV	_	5 heal	advmod
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 blood	det
3	blood	blood	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 heal	nsubj
4	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 heal	aux
5	heal	heal	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 wound	det
7	wound	wound	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 heal	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	heal	could	the blood	the wound					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent wound=Patient

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

Only that flesh could cure the illness

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Only	only	ADV	_	3 flesh	advmod
2	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 flesh	det
3	flesh	flesh	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 cure	nsubj
4	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 cure	aux
5	cure	cure	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 illness	det
7	illness	illness	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 cure	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cure	could	that flesh	the illness					vn free-10.6.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Causer illness=Source

Option 3

They had tried herbs and prayers for years but nothing worked against the illness

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 tried	nsubj
2	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 tried	aux
3	tried	try	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	herbs	herb	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 tried	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 prayers	cc
6	prayers	prayer	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 herbs	conj
7	for	for	ADP	_	8 years	case
8	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 tried	obl
9	but	but	CCONJ	_	11 worked	cc
10	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	11 worked	nsubj
11	worked	work	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 tried	conj
12	against	against	ADP	_	14 illness	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 illness	det
14	illness	illness	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 worked	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	try	past · perfect	They	herbs and prayers			year		vn try-61.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent herb=Eventuality
2	work	past	nothing					against the illness	vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

The wise men had read that only the flesh of the snake king could cure a fever

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 men	det
2	wise	wise	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 men	amod
3	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 read	nsubj:pass
4	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 read	aux
5	read	read	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	that	that	SCONJ	_	15 cure	mark
7	only	only	ADV	_	9 flesh	advmod
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 flesh	det
9	flesh	flesh	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 cure	nsubj
10	of	of	ADP	_	13 king	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 king	det
12	snake	snake	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 king	compound
13	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 flesh	nmod
14	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	15 cure	aux
15	cure	cure	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 read	ccomp
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 fever	det
17	fever	fever	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 cure	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	read	past · perfect · passive		the wise men					tree rules
2	cure	could	the flesh of the snake king	a fever					vn free-10.6.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Causer fever=Source

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/1796-pg641-part47/e3/