Exam question 2 · English Fairy Tales, Molly Whuppie, part 1: Childe Rowland…

By what means did the giant identify the necks of his own daughters in the darkness?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · What happens: mean, do, identify · To what, where: necks · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1961 «English Fairy Tales, Molly Whuppie, part 1: Childe Rowland frees his sister and the Elfin King, then Molly Whuppie tricks a giant three times» 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	By	by	SCONJ	_	3 means	mark
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 means	nsubj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 means	ccomp
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 giant	det
6	giant	giant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 did	xcomp
7	identify	identify	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 giant	xcomp
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 necks	det
9	necks	neck	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 identify	obj
10	of	of	ADP	_	13 daughters	case
11	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 daughters	nmod:poss
12	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 daughters	amod
13	daughters	daughter	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 necks	nmod
14	in	in	ADP	_	16 darkness	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 darkness	det
16	darkness	darkness	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 daughters	nmod
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 means	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	mean	present			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	do	past		giant property	vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	identify	infinitive	the necks of his own daughters in the darkness		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent neck=Theme

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

by their voices

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	ADP	_	3 voices	case
2	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 voices	nmod:poss
3	voices	voice	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root

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

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

by feeling for the straw ropes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 feeling	mark
2	feeling	feel	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	for	for	ADP	_	6 ropes	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 ropes	det
5	straw	straw	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 ropes	compound
6	ropes	rope	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 feeling	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	feel	gerund						for the straw ropes	vn hunt-35.1 «NP V PP.theme PP.location»: agent=Agent for rope=Theme

Option 3

by smelling the sweet hair

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 smelling	mark
2	smelling	smell	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 hair	det
4	sweet	sweet	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 hair	amod
5	hair	hair	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 smelling	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	smell	gerund		the sweet hair					vn see-30.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer hair=Stimulus

Option 4

by listening to their breathing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 listening	mark
2	listening	listen	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	to	to	ADP	_	5 breathing	case
4	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 breathing	nmod:poss
5	breathing	breathing	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 listening	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	listen	gerund						to their breathing	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to breathing=Theme
2	breathe		their = they						nom breathing «act intransitive»: poss=agent

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/1961-pg7439-part20/e2/