Exam question 3 · Household Tales, The Golden Bird, part 71: the Prince fail…

Describe the precise cause of the failure of the second attempt to remove the golden horse from the stables.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, second attempt · What happens: describe, remove, cause, fail · To what, where: precise cause, golden horse, stables, failure

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1934 «Household Tales, The Golden Bird, part 71: the Prince fails to steal the golden horse and is caught» 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	Describe	describe	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 cause	det
3	precise	precise	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 cause	amod
4	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Describe	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 failure	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 failure	det
7	failure	failure	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 cause	nmod
8	of	of	ADP	_	11 attempt	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 attempt	det
10	second	second	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	11 attempt	amod
11	attempt	attempt	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 failure	nmod
12	to	to	PART	_	13 remove	mark
13	remove	remove	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 attempt	acl
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 horse	det
15	golden	golden	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 horse	amod
16	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 remove	obj
17	from	from	ADP	_	19 stables	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 stables	det
19	stables	stable	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 remove	obl
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Describe	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	describe	imperative	you not said here	the precise cause of the failure of the second attempt		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent cause=Theme
2	remove	to-infinitive	you not said here	the golden horse	the stables	vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent horse=Theme from stable=Source
3	cause			the failure of the second attempt		nom cause «event transitive»: of=patient
4	fail		the second attempt			nom failure «act intransitive»: of=agent

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 horse's mane caught the rope as it went out

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 horse	det
2	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 mane	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 horse	case
4	mane	mane	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 caught	nsubj
5	caught	catch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 rope	det
7	rope	rope	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 caught	obj
8	as	as	SCONJ	_	10 went	mark
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 went	nsubj
10	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 caught	advcl
11	out	out	ADV	_	10 went	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	catch	past	the horse's mane	the rope					vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rope=Theme
2	go out	past	mane					out property	vn interact-36.6 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

the guards woke up

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 guards	det
2	guards	guard	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 woke	nsubj
3	woke	wake	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	up	up	ADP	_	3 woke	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wake up	past	the guards						vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

the horse's tail struck the wall as it was led out

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 horse	det
2	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 tail	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 horse	case
4	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 struck	nsubj
5	struck	strike	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 wall	det
7	wall	wall	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 struck	obj
8	as	as	SCONJ	_	11 led	mark
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 led	nsubj:pass
10	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 led	aux:pass
11	led	lead	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 struck	advcl
12	out	out	ADP	_	11 led	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	strike	past	the horse's tail	the wall					vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wall=Patient
2	lead out	past · passive		tail					vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

the wolf's cloak snagged the gate as he left

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 wolf	det
2	wolf	wolf	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 cloak	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 wolf	case
4	cloak	cloak	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 snagged	nsubj
5	snagged	snag	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 gate	det
7	gate	gate	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 snagged	obj
8	as	as	SCONJ	_	10 left	mark
9	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 left	nsubj
10	left	leave	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 snagged	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	snag	past	the wolf's cloak	the gate					tree rules
2	leave	past	he						vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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/1934-pg7277-part71/e3/