Exam question 3 · English Fairy Tales, Jack the Giant-Killer, part 16: the o…

exam: What did the Welsh giant intend to do to Jack during the night, according to his muttered verse?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Welsh giant, giant · What happens: intend, do, jack, accord, mutter, verse · To what, where: exam

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1957 «English Fairy Tales, Jack the Giant-Killer, part 16: the old Woman flees the bears, and Jack fools the Welsh giant with pudding» 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	exam	exam	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	:	:	PUNCT	_	8 intend	punct
3	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	8 intend	obj
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 intend	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 giant	det
6	Welsh	welsh	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 giant	amod
7	giant	giant	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 intend	nsubj
8	intend	intend	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 exam	acl:relcl
9	to	to	PART	_	10 do	mark
10	do	do	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 intend	xcomp
11	to	to	ADP	_	12 Jack	case
12	Jack	jack	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 do	conj
13	during	during	ADP	_	15 night	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 night	det
15	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 Jack	obl
16	,	,	PUNCT	_	21 verse	punct
17	according	accord	VERB	ExtPos=ADP Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	21 verse	case
18	to	to	ADP	_	17 according	fixed
19	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	21 verse	nmod:poss
20	muttered	mutter	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	21 verse	amod
21	verse	verse	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 intend	obl
22	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 exam	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	intend	past · do-support	the Welsh giant	exam		accord giant's muttered verse	tree rules
2	do not said to happen	to-infinitive	the Welsh giant not said here				vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	jack	infinitive	the Welsh giant not said here		night		tree rules
4	accord	gerund					vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent
5	mutter speech: assert	participle					vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent
6	verse		giant				nom verse «communication transitive»: poss=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

Smash his skull open

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Smash	smash	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 skull	nmod:poss
3	skull	skull	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Smash	obj
4	open	open	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Smash	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	smash	imperative	you not said here	his skull				open property	vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent skull=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Dash his brains out

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Dash	dash	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 brains	nmod:poss
3	brains	brain	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Dash	obj
4	out	out	ADV	_	1 Dash	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dash out	imperative	you not said here	his brains				out property	vn hit-18.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent brain=Patient

Option 3

Break his neck quickly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Break	break	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 neck	nmod:poss
3	neck	neck	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Break	obj
4	quickly	quickly	ADV	_	1 Break	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	break	imperative	you not said here	his neck				quickly property	vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer neck=Patient

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

Kill him

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Kill	kill	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 Kill	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	kill	imperative	you not said here	him = he					vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=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/1957-pg7439-part16/e3/