Exam question 3 · Arabian Nights, The Princess Gulizar, part 37: a poisoned…

By what means did the vizier's son ascertain that the pilaw was poisoned?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: son · What happens: mean, ascertain, poison · To what, where: pilaw

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1853 «Arabian Nights, The Princess Gulizar, part 37: a poisoned pilaw meant for the vizier's son» 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	By	by	SCONJ	_	3 means	mark
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 means	nsubj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 ascertain	advcl
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 ascertain	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 vizier	det
6	vizier	vizier	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 son	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 vizier	case
8	son	son	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 ascertain	nsubj
9	ascertain	ascertain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
10	that	that	SCONJ	_	14 poisoned	mark
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 pilaw	det
12	pilaw	pilaw	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 poisoned	nsubj:pass
13	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 poisoned	aux:pass
14	poisoned	poison	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 ascertain	advcl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	9 ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	mean	present			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	ascertain	past · do-support	the vizier's son		vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent
3	poison	past · passive		the pilaw	vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: 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

By smelling the smoke

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 smelling	mark
2	smelling	smell	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 smoke	det
4	smoke	smoke	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 smelling	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	smell	gerund		the smoke					vn see-30.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer smoke=Stimulus

Option 2

By seeing the stream water change colour

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 seeing	mark
2	seeing	see	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 change	advcl
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 water	det
4	stream	stream	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 water	compound
5	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 seeing	obj
6	change	change	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 change	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	see	gerund		the stream water					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer water=Stimulus
2	change	present		colour					vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent colour=Patient

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

By observing the grass beneath the saucepan turn yellow

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 observing	mark
2	observing	observe	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 turn	advcl
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 grass	det
4	grass	grass	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 observing	obj
5	beneath	beneath	ADP	_	7 saucepan	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 saucepan	det
7	saucepan	saucepan	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 observing	obl
8	turn	turn	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	yellow	yellow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 turn	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	observe	gerund	you not said here	the grass				beneath the saucepan	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent grass=Topic
2	turn	imperative	you not said here					yellow property	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

By noticing the crows drop down and die

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 noticing	mark
2	noticing	notice	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 crows	det
4	crows	crow	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 drop	nsubj
5	drop	drop	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 noticing	parataxis
6	down	down	ADP	_	5 drop	compound:prt
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 die	cc
8	die	die	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 drop	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	roles by
1	notice	gerund		vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer
2	drop down	present	the crows	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme
3	die	infinitive	the crows not said here	vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

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/1853-pg7128-part37/e3/