Exam question 2 · English Fairy Tales, The Master and His Pupil: a curious l…

What task did the apprentice first set the demon in order to avoid being strangled?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: task, apprentice · What happens: do, set, avoid, strangle · To what, where: demon, order

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1953 «English Fairy Tales, The Master and His Pupil: a curious lad calls up a demon and nearly drowns in water» 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	3 did	obj
2	task	task	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	nsubj
3	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 apprentice	det
5	apprentice	apprentice	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 set	nsubj
6	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	7 set	advmod
7	set	set	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 did	advcl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 demon	det
9	demon	demon	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 set	obj
10	in	in	ADP	_	11 order	case
11	order	order	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 set	obl
12	to	to	PART	_	13 avoid	mark
13	avoid	avoid	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 set	advcl
14	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	15 strangled	aux:pass
15	strangled	strangle	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	13 avoid	xcomp
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	do	past	task				vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality
2	set	past	the apprentice	the demon	order	first property	vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent demon=Theme in order=Destination
3	avoid	to-infinitive	the apprentice not said here				vn avoid-52 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
4	strangle	gerund · passive	the apprentice not said here				vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»

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

To fill the chamber with water until the flower finally bloomed in the pot

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 fill	mark
2	fill	fill	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 chamber	det
4	chamber	chamber	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 fill	obj
5	with	with	ADP	_	6 water	case
6	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 fill	obl
7	until	until	ADP	_	9 flower	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 flower	det
9	flower	flower	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 fill	obl
10	finally	finally	ADV	_	11 bloomed	advmod
11	bloomed	bloom	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 flower	acl
12	in	in	ADP	_	14 pot	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 pot	det
14	pot	pot	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 fill	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fill	to-infinitive		the chamber		the pot	until the flower	with water	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent chamber=Patient with water=Instrument
2	bloom	participle		the flower not said here				finally property	vn entity_specific_modes_being-47.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

To fill a bucket from the well

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 fill	mark
2	fill	fill	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 bucket	det
4	bucket	bucket	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 fill	obj
5	from	from	ADP	_	7 well	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 well	det
7	well	well	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 fill	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fill	to-infinitive		a bucket		the well			vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent bucket=Patient

Option 3

To sweep the floor of the room

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 sweep	mark
2	sweep	sweep	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 floor	det
4	floor	floor	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 sweep	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 room	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 room	det
7	room	room	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 floor	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sweep	to-infinitive		the floor of the room					vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme floor=Trajectory

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

To water a geranium in a pot

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 water	mark
2	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 geranium	det
4	geranium	geranium	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 water	conj
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 pot	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 pot	det
7	pot	pot	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 geranium	nmod

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/1953-pg7439-part12/e2/