Exam question 4 · Celtic Fairy Tales, Jack and the Golden Castle: the castle…

In what manner did the little red men maintain their observance of the Sabbath aboard the castle?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: little red men, men · What happens: do, maintain, observe · To what, where: manner, observance, Sabbath

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1955 «Celtic Fairy Tales, Jack and the Golden Castle: the castle is found and carried away over the sea» 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	In	in	ADP	_	3 manner	case
2	what	what	DET	PronType=Int	3 manner	det
3	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obl
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 men	det
6	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 men	amod
7	red	red	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 men	amod
8	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 maintain	nsubj
9	maintain	maintain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 did	parataxis
10	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 observance	nmod:poss
11	observance	observance	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 maintain	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 Sabbath	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 Sabbath	det
14	Sabbath	Sabbath	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 observance	nmod
15	aboard	aboard	ADP	_	17 castle	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 castle	det
17	castle	castle	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 maintain	obl
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	do	past			what manner		vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	maintain	present	the little red men	men's observance of the Sabbath		aboard the castle	vn declare-29.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent observance=Theme
3	observe		men = man	the Sabbath			nom observance «act transitive»: poss=agent of=patient

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

By holding church with a priest and a clerk

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 holding	mark
2	holding	hold	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	church	church	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 holding	obj
4	with	with	ADP	_	6 priest	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 priest	det
6	priest	priest	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 holding	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 clerk	cc
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 clerk	det
9	clerk	clerk	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 priest	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hold	gerund		church				with a priest and a clerk	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent church=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

By performing a service with clerk and priest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 performing	mark
2	performing	perform	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 service	det
4	service	service	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 performing	obj
5	with	with	ADP	_	6 clerk	case
6	clerk	clerk	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 performing	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 priest	cc
8	priest	priest	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 clerk	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	perform	gerund		a service				with clerk and priest	vn performance-26.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent service=Theme

Option 3

By singing hymns with the two women there

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 singing	mark
2	singing	sing	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	hymns	hymn	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 singing	obj
4	with	with	ADP	_	7 women	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 women	det
6	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 women	nummod
7	women	woman	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 singing	obl
8	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	7 women	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sing speech: express	gerund		hymns				with the two women	vn sound_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location hymn=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

With a priest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	With	with	ADP	_	3 priest	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 priest	det
3	priest	priest	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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/1955-pg7439-part14/e4/