Exam question 2 · Indian Fairy Tales, The Bamboo Fiddle: the drowned girl be…

Identify the reason the bamboo gave for its repeated instructions to the Jogi regarding the cutting of its stem.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, bamboo, stem · What happens: identify, give, repeat, regard, instruct, cut · To what, where: reason, Jogi

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1825 «Indian Fairy Tales, The Bamboo Fiddle: the drowned girl becomes a bamboo fiddle that cooks for a chief's son, then the Cruel Crane tricks the fish» 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	Identify	identify	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 Identify	obj
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 bamboo	det
5	bamboo	bamboo	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 gave	nsubj
6	gave	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	acl:relcl
7	for	for	ADP	_	10 instructions	case
8	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 instructions	nmod:poss
9	repeated	repeat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 instructions	amod
10	instructions	instruction	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 gave	obl
11	to	to	ADP	_	13 Jogi	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 Jogi	det
13	Jogi	Jogi	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 gave	obl
14	regarding	regard	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	16 cutting	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 cutting	det
16	cutting	cutting	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 gave	obl
17	of	of	ADP	_	19 stem	case
18	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	19 stem	nmod:poss
19	stem	stem	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 cutting	nmod
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the reason			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	give	past	the bamboo	the reason not said here	the Jogi	for bamboo's repeated instructions; regard the cutting of bamboo's stem	vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient PP.asset»: agent=Agent reason=Theme for instruction=Asset to jogi=Recipient
3	repeat	participle					vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality
4	regard	gerund					vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
5	instruct		bamboo				nom instruction «communication transitive»: poss=agent
6	cut		bamboo's stem				nom cutting «act intransitive»: of=agent
7	stem		bamboo				nom stem «communication transitive»: 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

It sought to delay the Jogi until the Bonga arrived to rescue the girl

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 sought	nsubj
2	sought	seek	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 delay	mark
4	delay	delay	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 sought	xcomp
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Jogi	det
6	Jogi	Jogi	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 delay	obj
7	until	until	SCONJ	_	10 arrived	mark
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 Bonga	det
9	Bonga	Bonga	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 arrived	nsubj
10	arrived	arrive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 delay	advcl
11	to	to	PART	_	12 rescue	mark
12	rescue	rescue	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 arrived	xcomp
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 girl	det
14	girl	girl	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 rescue	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	seek	past	It		tree rules
2	delay not said to happen	to-infinitive		the Jogi	vn delay-53.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent jogi=Source
3	arrive	past	the Bonga		tree rules
4	rescue	to-infinitive	the Bonga not said here	the girl	vn steal-10.5 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent girl=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

It sought to delay the Jogi until the Bonga arrived

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 sought	nsubj
2	sought	seek	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 delay	mark
4	delay	delay	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 sought	xcomp
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Jogi	det
6	Jogi	Jogi	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 delay	obj
7	until	until	SCONJ	_	10 arrived	mark
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 Bonga	det
9	Bonga	Bonga	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 arrived	nsubj
10	arrived	arrive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 delay	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	seek	past	It		tree rules
2	delay not said to happen	to-infinitive		the Jogi	vn delay-53.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent jogi=Source
3	arrive	past	the Bonga		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

It wanted the Jogi to stay longer

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 wanted	nsubj
2	wanted	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 Jogi	det
4	Jogi	Jogi	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 wanted	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 stay	mark
6	stay	stay	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 wanted	xcomp
7	longer	long	ADV	Degree=Cmp	6 stay	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	want	past	It	the Jogi					tree rules
2	stay not said to happen	to-infinitive	the Jogi not said here					long property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

It sought to delay the Jogi until the Bonga arrived and stopped the cutting completely

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 sought	nsubj
2	sought	seek	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 delay	mark
4	delay	delay	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 sought	xcomp
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Jogi	det
6	Jogi	Jogi	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 delay	obj
7	until	until	SCONJ	_	10 arrived	mark
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 Bonga	det
9	Bonga	Bonga	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 arrived	nsubj
10	arrived	arrive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 delay	advcl
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 stopped	cc
12	stopped	stop	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 sought	conj
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 cutting	det
14	cutting	cutting	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 stopped	obj
15	completely	completely	ADV	_	12 stopped	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	seek	past	It			tree rules
2	delay not said to happen	to-infinitive		the Jogi		vn delay-53.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent jogi=Source
3	arrive	past	the Bonga			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
4	stop	past		the cutting	completely property	vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality cutting=Eventuality

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.

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