Exam question 3 · English Fairy Tales, The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh:…

By what means did Childe Wynd render the witch-queen into a toad?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · What happens: mean, do, render · To what, where: witch queen · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1970 «English Fairy Tales, The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh: Margaret is freed by three kisses, and the witch-queen becomes a toad» 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	7 render	advcl
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 means	ccomp
5	Childe	Childe	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 did	parataxis
6	Wynd	Wynd	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 Childe	flat
7	render	render	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 queen	det
9	witch	witch	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 queen	compound
10	-	-	PUNCT	_	9 witch	punct
11	queen	queen	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 render	obj
12	into	into	ADP	_	14 toad	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 toad	det
14	toad	toad	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 render	obl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 render	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			vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	render	present	the witch queen	into a toad	vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent queen=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

By striking her three times with a rowan branch and a prayer

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 striking	mark
2	striking	strike	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 times	nmod:poss
4	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	5 times	nummod
5	times	time	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 striking	obj
6	with	with	ADP	_	9 branch	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 branch	det
8	rowan	rowan	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 branch	compound
9	branch	branch	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 striking	obl
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 prayer	cc
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 prayer	det
12	prayer	prayer	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 branch	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	strike	gerund					time	with a rowan branch and a prayer	vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with branch=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

By touching her with rowan

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 touching	mark
2	touching	touch	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 touching	obj
4	with	with	ADP	_	5 rowan	case
5	rowan	rowan	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 touching	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	touch	gerund		her = she				with rowan	vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent she=Experiencer with rowan=Instrument

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

By cursing her with salt

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 cursing	mark
2	cursing	curse	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 cursing	obj
4	with	with	ADP	_	5 salt	case
5	salt	salt	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 cursing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	curse	gerund		her = she				with salt	vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme

Option 4

By touching her face with a rowan twig from the hill

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 touching	mark
2	touching	touch	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 face	nmod:poss
4	face	face	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 touching	obj
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 twig	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 twig	det
7	rowan	rowan	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 twig	compound
8	twig	twig	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 touching	obl
9	from	from	ADP	_	11 hill	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 hill	det
11	hill	hill	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 twig	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	touch	gerund		her face				with a rowan twig from the hill	vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent face=Experiencer with twig=Instrument

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/1970-pg7439-part29/e3/