Exam question 4 · English Fairy Tales, Coo-my-dove, part 1: Johnny-cake is e…

What object did the Earl intend to use in carrying out his threat against the dove?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: object, Earl · What happens: do, intend, use, carry out · To what, where: threat

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1966 «English Fairy Tales, Coo-my-dove, part 1: Johnny-cake is eaten, and the dove flies to the queen» 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	object	object	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 Earl	det
5	Earl	Earl	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 intend	nsubj
6	intend	intend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 did	ccomp
7	to	to	PART	_	8 use	mark
8	use	use	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 intend	xcomp
9	in	in	SCONJ	_	10 carrying	mark
10	carrying	carry	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 use	advcl
11	out	out	ADP	_	10 carrying	compound:prt
12	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 threat	nmod:poss
13	threat	threat	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 carrying	obj
14	against	against	ADP	_	16 dove	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 dove	det
16	dove	dove	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 carrying	obl
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	do	past	object			tree rules
2	intend	present	the Earl			vn intend-61.2-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	use not said to happen	to-infinitive	the Earl not said here			vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	carry out	gerund	the Earl not said here	Earl's threat	against the dove	vn act-114 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent threat=Eventuality

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 kill it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	to	to	PART	_	2 kill	mark
2	kill	kill	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 kill	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	kill	to-infinitive		it					vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

Option 2

to twist its neck until it stopped moving

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	to	to	PART	_	2 twist	mark
2	twist	twist	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 neck	nmod:poss
4	neck	neck	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 twist	obj
5	until	until	SCONJ	_	7 stopped	mark
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 stopped	nsubj
7	stopped	stop	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 twist	advcl
8	moving	move	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 stopped	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	twist	to-infinitive		its neck	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent neck=Theme
2	stop	past	neck		vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality
3	move	gerund	neck not said here		vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

to twist its neck

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	to	to	PART	_	2 twist	mark
2	twist	twist	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 neck	nmod:poss
4	neck	neck	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 twist	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	twist	to-infinitive		its neck					vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent neck=Theme

Option 4

to cut off its wings and twist its neck

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	to	to	PART	_	2 cut	mark
2	cut	cut	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	off	off	ADP	_	2 cut	compound:prt
4	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 wings	nmod:poss
5	wings	wing	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 cut	obj
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 twist	cc
7	twist	twist	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	2 cut	conj
8	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 neck	nmod:poss
9	neck	neck	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 twist	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cut off	to-infinitive		its wings					vn stop-55.4-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Affector wing=Eventuality
2	twist	infinitive		its neck					vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent neck=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/1966-pg7439-part25/e4/