Exam question 3 · Grimm, The White Snake, part 1: the servant gets animal ta…

Which of the following tasks did the princess set the youth in the garden before demanding the apple?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: following tasks, princess · What happens: follow, do, set, demand · To what, where: youth, garden, apple

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1932 «Grimm, The White Snake, part 1: the servant gets animal talk and the animals repay his kindness» 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	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 did	obj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 tasks	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 tasks	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 tasks	amod
5	tasks	task	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 did	nsubj
6	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 princess	det
8	princess	princess	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 set	nsubj
9	set	set	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 did	conj
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 youth	det
11	youth	youth	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 set	obj
12	in	in	ADP	_	14 garden	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 garden	det
14	garden	garden	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 set	obl
15	before	before	SCONJ	_	16 demanding	mark
16	demanding	demand	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 set	advcl
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 apple	det
18	apple	apple	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 demanding	obj
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	do	past	the following tasks			vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=Eventuality
3	set	past	the princess	the youth	the garden	vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent youth=Theme in garden=Destination
4	demand speech: request	gerund	the princess not said here	the apple		vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme apple=Precondition

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

spreading ten sacks of grain over the field

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	spreading	spread	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	ten	ten	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 sacks	nummod
3	sacks	sack	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 spreading	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 grain	case
5	grain	grain	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 sacks	nmod
6	over	over	ADP	_	8 field	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 field	det
8	field	field	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 spreading	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	spread	gerund		ten sacks of grain		the field			vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent sack=Theme over field=Destination

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

spreading ten sacks of millet over the grass before dawn in the royal garden

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	spreading	spread	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	ten	ten	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 sacks	nummod
3	sacks	sack	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 spreading	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 millet	case
5	millet	millet	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 sacks	nmod
6	over	over	ADP	_	8 grass	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 grass	det
8	grass	grass	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 spreading	obl
9	before	before	ADP	_	10 dawn	case
10	dawn	dawn	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 spreading	obl
11	in	in	ADP	_	14 garden	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 garden	det
13	royal	royal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 garden	amod
14	garden	garden	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 spreading	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	spread	gerund		ten sacks of millet		the grass	dawn	in the royal garden	vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent sack=Theme over grass=Destination

Option 3

spreading ten sacks of millet over the grass and then waiting for the ants to gather it

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	spreading	spread	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	ten	ten	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 sacks	nummod
3	sacks	sack	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 spreading	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 millet	case
5	millet	millet	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 sacks	nmod
6	over	over	ADP	_	8 grass	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 grass	det
8	grass	grass	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 spreading	obl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 waiting	cc
10	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	11 waiting	advmod
11	waiting	wait	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 spreading	conj
12	for	for	ADP	_	14 ants	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 ants	det
14	ants	ant	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 waiting	obl
15	to	to	PART	_	16 gather	mark
16	gather	gather	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 spreading	advcl
17	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 gather	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	spread	gerund	ten sacks of millet	the grass			vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent sack=Theme over grass=Destination
2	wait	gerund			then	for the ants	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	gather	to-infinitive	grass				vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

spreading ten sacks of millet over the grass

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	spreading	spread	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	ten	ten	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 sacks	nummod
3	sacks	sack	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 spreading	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 millet	case
5	millet	millet	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 sacks	nmod
6	over	over	ADP	_	8 grass	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 grass	det
8	grass	grass	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 spreading	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	spread	gerund		ten sacks of millet		the grass			vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent sack=Theme over grass=Destination

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/1932-pg7277-part69/e3/