Exam question 2 · Fairy Tales, The Magic Swan, part 1: Peter's swan catches…

By what means was the youngest brother's situation characterised?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: situation · What happens: be, mean, characteris

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1902 «Fairy Tales, The Magic Swan, part 1: Peter's swan catches a crowd and the Princess laughs at last» 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	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 what	cop
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 brother	det
6	youngest	young	ADJ	Degree=Sup	7 brother	amod
7	brother	brother	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 situation	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 brother	case
9	situation	situation	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 what	nsubj
10	characterised	characteris	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 what	xcomp
11	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 what	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	roles by
1	is	past	the youngest brother's situation	tree rules
2	mean	present		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
3	characteris	participle	the youngest brother's situation not said here	tree rules

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

He was left alone in the wood, the object of ill-treatment by his elder brothers and his father.

The tree, 19 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	3 left	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 left	aux:pass
3	left	leave	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	alone	alone	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 left	xcomp
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 wood	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 wood	det
7	wood	wood	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 left	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 object	punct
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 object	det
10	object	object	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 wood	appos
11	of	of	ADP	_	14 treatment	case
12	ill	ill	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 treatment	amod
13	-	-	PUNCT	_	12 ill	punct
14	treatment	treatment	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 object	nmod
15	by	by	ADP	_	18 brothers	case
16	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	18 brothers	nmod:poss
17	elder	elder	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 brothers	compound
18	brothers	brother	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 left	obl
19	and	and	CCONJ	_	21 father	cc
20	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	21 father	nmod:poss
21	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 brothers	conj
22	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 left	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	leave	past · passive	his elder brothers and his father	He		the wood		alone property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent subject=Theme in wood=Location

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

He was the object of ill-treatment by his elder brothers

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	4 object	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 object	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 object	det
4	object	object	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 treatment	case
6	ill	ill	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 treatment	amod
7	-	-	PUNCT	_	6 ill	punct
8	treatment	treatment	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 object	nmod
9	by	by	ADP	_	12 brothers	case
10	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 brothers	nmod:poss
11	elder	elder	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 brothers	compound
12	brothers	brother	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 object	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	He	the object				of ill treatment; by his elder brothers	tree rules

Option 3

He was the favourite of his elder brothers.

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	4 favourite	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 favourite	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 favourite	det
4	favourite	favourite	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 brothers	case
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 brothers	nmod:poss
7	elder	elder	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 brothers	compound
8	brothers	brother	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 favourite	nmod
9	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 favourite	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	He	the favourite				of his elder brothers	tree rules

Option 4

He was the constant object of cruel ill-treatment by both of his elder brothers at home.

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	5 object	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 object	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 object	det
4	constant	constant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 object	amod
5	object	object	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	10 treatment	case
7	cruel	cruel	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 treatment	amod
8	ill	ill	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 treatment	amod
9	-	-	PUNCT	_	8 ill	punct
10	treatment	treatment	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 object	nmod
11	by	by	ADP	_	12 both	case
12	both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	5 object	nmod
13	of	of	ADP	_	16 brothers	case
14	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 brothers	nmod:poss
15	elder	elder	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 brothers	compound
16	brothers	brother	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 both	nmod
17	at	at	ADP	_	18 home	case
18	home	home	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 brothers	nmod
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 object	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	He	the constant object				of cruel ill treatment; by both	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/1902-pg7277-part39/e2/