Exam question 1 · Pink Fairy Book, Prince Mirliflor, part 12: the watch fall…

Which creature retrieved the magic watch from the sea, and by what means was it recovered?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: creature · What happens: retrieve, mean, recover · To what, where: magic watch, sea, creature

This is exam question 1 of lesson 1875 «Pink Fairy Book, Prince Mirliflor, part 12: the watch falls into the sea and the fairies choose a new Queen» 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 creature	det
2	creature	creature	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 retrieved	nsubj
3	retrieved	retrieve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 watch	det
5	magic	magic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 watch	amod
6	watch	watch	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 retrieved	obj
7	from	from	ADP	_	9 sea	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 sea	det
9	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 retrieved	obl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 means	punct
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 means	cc
12	by	by	ADP	_	13 what	case
13	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	14 means	nsubj
14	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 retrieved	parataxis
15	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	17 recovered	aux:pass
16	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	17 recovered	nsubj
17	recovered	recover	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	14 means	xcomp
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 retrieved	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	retrieve	past	which creature	the magic watch	the sea	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent watch=Theme from sea=Source
2	mean	present				vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	recover not said to happen	past · passive		creature		vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

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 cat, by scratching a hole in it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cat	det
2	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 scratching	punct
4	by	by	SCONJ	_	5 scratching	mark
5	scratching	scratch	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 cat	acl
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 hole	det
7	hole	hole	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 scratching	obj
8	in	in	ADP	_	9 it	case
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 hole	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	scratch	gerund	the cat not said here	a hole		hole			vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent hole=Theme in it=Destination

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

The dog, having swum across the sea and then dived down into the deep water to find it

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 dog	det
2	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 dived	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 swum	punct
4	having	have	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 swum	aux
5	swum	swim	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 dog	acl
6	across	across	ADP	_	8 sea	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 sea	det
8	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 swum	obl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 dived	cc
10	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	11 dived	advmod
11	dived	dive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
12	down	down	ADV	_	11 dived	advmod
13	into	into	ADP	_	16 water	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 water	det
15	deep	deep	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 water	amod
16	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 dived	obl
17	to	to	PART	_	18 find	mark
18	find	find	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 dived	advcl
19	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	18 find	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	swim	gerund · perfect		the dog not said here	the sea			vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme across sea=Trajectory
2	dive down	past	the dog		the deep water	then	down property	vn meander-47.7 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into water=Location
3	find	to-infinitive	the dog not said here	dog				vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic

Option 3

The dog, having been paid with a bone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 dog	det
2	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 paid	nsubj:pass
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 dog	punct
4	having	have	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 paid	aux
5	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	6 paid	aux:pass
6	paid	pay	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	with	with	ADP	_	9 bone	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 bone	det
9	bone	bone	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 paid	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pay	gerund · perfect · passive		the dog				with a bone	vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Asset

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The fish, having agreed to find it in exchange for sparing its children

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 fish	det
2	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 agreed	nsubj:pass
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 fish	punct
4	having	have	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 agreed	aux
5	agreed	agree	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 find	mark
7	find	find	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 agreed	xcomp
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 find	obj
9	in	in	ADP	_	10 exchange	case
10	exchange	exchange	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 find	obl
11	for	for	SCONJ	_	12 sparing	mark
12	sparing	spare	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 find	advcl
13	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 children	nmod:poss
14	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 sparing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	where	roles by
1	agree speech: agree	gerund · perfect · passive	the fish		vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V PP.co-agent that S»: subject=Co-Agent clause=Topic
2	find not said to happen	to-infinitive	fish	exchange	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Topic
3	spare	gerund	fish's children		vn bill-54.5 «NP V NP NP.asset»: agent=Agent child=Asset

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/1875-pg7277-part12/e1/