Exam question 2 · Grimm's Fairy Tales, The War of the Wolf and the Fox, part…

What was the cat's principal occupation prior to her dismissal by Simon?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: principal occupation prior, Simon · What happens: be, dismiss · To what, where: prior

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1936 «Grimm's Fairy Tales, The War of the Wolf and the Fox, part 73: the cruel brothers are banished, and the old cat and dog join the fox's war» 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 cat	det
4	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 prior	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 cat	case
6	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 prior	amod
7	occupation	occupation	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 prior	compound
8	prior	prior	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
9	to	to	ADP	_	11 dismissal	case
10	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 dismissal	nmod:poss
11	dismissal	dismissal	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 prior	nmod
12	by	by	ADP	_	13 Simon	case
13	Simon	Simon	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 dismissal	nmod
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	the cat's principal occupation prior to prior's dismissal by Simon						tree rules
2	dismiss		Simon	prior					nom dismissal «act transitive»: poss=patient by=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 · ← Mova's choice

Sleeping by the fire

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sleeping	sleep	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	by	by	ADP	_	4 fire	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 fire	det
4	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Sleeping	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sleep	gerund						by the fire	vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

Guarding the sausages

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Guarding	guard	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 sausages	det
3	sausages	sausage	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Guarding	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	guard	gerund		the sausages					vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sausage=Beneficiary

Option 3

Fetching water from the well

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fetching	fetch	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Fetching	obj
3	from	from	ADP	_	5 well	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 well	det
5	well	well	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Fetching	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fetch	gerund		water		the well			vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent water=Theme from well=Source

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Catching mice in the household

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Catching	catch	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	mice	mouse	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Catching	obj
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 household	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 household	det
5	household	household	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Catching	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	catch	gerund		mice		the household			vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mouse=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/1936-pg7277-part73/e2/