Exam question 2 · Grimm's Tales, The Flute-Player: the youth wakes the sleep…

What was the principal obstacle to the travellers' return across the river?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: travellers · What happens: be, return · To what, where: principal obstacle, river

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1940 «Grimm's Tales, The Flute-Player: the youth wakes the sleeping Princess and wins her kingdom» 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	5 obstacle	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 obstacle	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 obstacle	det
4	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 obstacle	amod
5	obstacle	obstacle	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	to	to	ADP	_	10 return	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 travellers	det
8	travellers	traveller	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 return	nmod:poss
9	'	's	PART	_	8 travellers	case
10	return	return	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 obstacle	nmod
11	across	across	ADP	_	13 river	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 river	det
13	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 return	nmod
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 obstacle	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past		the principal obstacle				to the travellers's return across the river	tree rules
2	return		the travellers			the river			nom return «communication intransitive»: poss=agent across=place

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

The rocky banks and a sharp cliff

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 banks	det
2	rocky	rocky	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 banks	amod
3	banks	bank	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 cliff	cc
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 cliff	det
6	sharp	sharp	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 cliff	amod
7	cliff	cliff	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 banks	conj

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

Option 2

The violent current and roaring waters that no boat could survive

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 current	det
2	violent	violent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 current	amod
3	current	current	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 waters	cc
5	roaring	roar	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 waters	amod
6	waters	water	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 current	conj
7	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 survive	obj
8	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	9 boat	det
9	boat	boat	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 survive	nsubj
10	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 survive	aux
11	survive	survive	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 current	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	roar	gerund							vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	survive	could	no boat	the violent current and roaring waters					vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme that=Circumstance

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The violent current and roaring waters

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 current	det
2	violent	violent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 current	amod
3	current	current	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 roaring	cc
5	roaring	roar	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 current	conj
6	waters	water	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 roaring	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	roar	gerund		waters					vn sound_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location water=Theme

Option 4

The fierce wind and the rising tide

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 wind	det
2	fierce	fierce	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 wind	amod
3	wind	wind	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 tide	cc
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 tide	det
6	rising	rising	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 tide	compound
7	tide	tide	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 wind	conj

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

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/1940-pg7277-part77/e2/