Exam question 3 · Arabian Nights, The Hunchback, part 33: the tailor confess…

By what means did the usher prevent the execution?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: usher · What happens: mean, prevent · To what, where: execution

This is exam question 3 of lesson 193 «Arabian Nights, The Hunchback, part 33: the tailor confesses, the Sultan summons everyone, and Alnaschar dreams of riches» 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=Rel	7 prevent	obl
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 prevent	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 usher	det
6	usher	usher	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 prevent	nsubj
7	prevent	prevent	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 execution	det
9	execution	execution	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 prevent	obj
10	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 prevent	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present							vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	prevent	past · do-support	the usher	the execution					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer execution=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

By force

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	2 force	case
2	force	force	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2

By shouting

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 shouting	mark
2	shouting	shout	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	shout speech: express	gerund							vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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

By delivering the Sultan's command

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 delivering	mark
2	delivering	deliver	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 Sultan	det
4	Sultan	Sultan	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 command	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 Sultan	case
6	command	command	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 delivering	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	deliver	gerund		the Sultan's command					vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent command=Patient
2	command		the Sultan						nom command «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4

By reading the royal decree aloud

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 reading	mark
2	reading	read	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 decree	det
4	royal	royal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 decree	amod
5	decree	decree	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reading	obj
6	aloud	aloud	ADV	_	2 reading	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	read	gerund		the royal decree				aloud property	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent decree=Topic

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/193-pg128-part33/e3/