Exam question 2 · Arabian Nights, The Story of the Three Calenders, part 20:…

Which action of the narrator directly caused the horse to take flight?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: action, horse, narrator · What happens: cause, take, act · To what, where: horse, flight

This is exam question 2 of lesson 180 «Arabian Nights, The Story of the Three Calenders, part 20: the Golden Door is opened, a flying horse carries the narrator off and blinds his right eye» 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	DET	PronType=Int	2 action	det
2	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 caused	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 narrator	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 narrator	det
5	narrator	narrator	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 action	nmod
6	directly	directly	ADV	_	7 caused	advmod
7	caused	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 horse	det
9	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 caused	obj
10	to	to	PART	_	11 take	mark
11	take	take	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 caused	xcomp
12	flight	flight	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 take	obj
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 caused	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	cause	past	which action of the narrator	the horse	directly property	tree rules
2	take	to-infinitive	the horse not said here	flight		vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent flight=Theme
3	act		the narrator			nom action «act intransitive»: of=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 kicked the horse hard with his heels

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 kicked	nsubj
2	kicked	kick	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 horse	det
4	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 kicked	obj
5	hard	hard	ADV	Degree=Pos	2 kicked	advmod
6	with	with	ADP	_	8 heels	case
7	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 heels	nmod:poss
8	heels	heel	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 kicked	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	kick	past	He	the horse				with horse's heels; hard property	vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent horse=Patient with heel=Instrument

Option 2

He touched the horse lightly with a switch and then whispered the magic word into its ear

The tree, 17 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 touched	nsubj
2	touched	touch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 horse	det
4	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 touched	obj
5	lightly	lightly	ADV	_	2 touched	advmod
6	with	with	ADP	_	8 switch	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 switch	det
8	switch	switch	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 touched	obl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 whispered	cc
10	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	11 whispered	advmod
11	whispered	whisper	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 touched	conj
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 word	det
13	magic	magic	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 word	compound
14	word	word	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 whispered	obj
15	into	into	ADP	_	17 ear	case
16	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 ear	nmod:poss
17	ear	ear	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 whispered	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	touch	past	He	the horse				with a switch; lightly property	vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent horse=Experiencer with switch=Instrument
2	whisper speech: assert	past	He not said here	the magic word		word's ear	then		vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent word=Topic into ear=Recipient

Option 3

He rode the horse through the gate

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 rode	nsubj
2	rode	ride	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 horse	det
4	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 rode	obj
5	through	through	ADP	_	7 gate	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 gate	det
7	gate	gate	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 rode	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ride	past	He	the horse		the gate			vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent horse=Theme through gate=Trajectory

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

He touched the horse lightly with a switch

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 touched	nsubj
2	touched	touch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 horse	det
4	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 touched	obj
5	lightly	lightly	ADV	_	2 touched	advmod
6	with	with	ADP	_	8 switch	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 switch	det
8	switch	switch	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 touched	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	touch	past	He	the horse				with a switch; lightly property	vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent horse=Experiencer with switch=Instrument

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/180-pg128-part20/e2/