Exam question 3 · Roumanian Tales, The Milkwhite Maiden, part 53: the sparks…

Describe the manner in which the aspen beds were destroyed by the empress.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, empress · What happens: describe, destroy · To what, where: manner, aspen beds

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1802 «Roumanian Tales, The Milkwhite Maiden, part 53: the sparks become golden fishes, and the fishes become princes» 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	Describe	describe	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 Describe	obj
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 destroyed	obl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 beds	det
7	aspen	aspen	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 beds	compound
8	beds	bed	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 destroyed	nsubj:pass
9	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 destroyed	aux:pass
10	destroyed	destroy	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 manner	acl:relcl
11	by	by	ADP	_	13 empress	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 empress	det
13	empress	empress	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 destroyed	obl
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Describe	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	describe	imperative	you not said here	the manner					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent manner=Theme
2	destroy	past · passive	the empress	the aspen beds		the manner			vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient

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 · ✓ the right answer

They were burnt and the ashes scattered

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 burnt	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 burnt	aux:pass
3	burnt	burnt	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 scattered	cc
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 ashes	det
6	ashes	ash	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 scattered	nsubj:pass
7	scattered	scatter	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 burnt	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	burnt	past · passive		They					tree rules
2	scatter	participle · passive		the ashes					vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.theme»: subject=Theme

Option 2

They were cut and thrown away

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 cut	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 cut	aux:pass
3	cut	cut	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 thrown	cc
5	thrown	throw	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 cut	conj
6	away	away	ADV	_	5 thrown	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cut	past · passive		They					vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product
2	throw away	participle						away property	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

They were broken and buried

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 broken	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 broken	aux:pass
3	broken	break	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 buried	cc
5	buried	bury	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 broken	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	break	past · passive		They					vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
2	bury	participle							vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 4

They were burnt

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 burnt	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 burnt	aux:pass
3	burnt	burnt	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	burnt	past · passive		They					tree rules

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/1802-pg641-part53/e3/