Exam question 4 · English Fairy Tales, Dame Goody, the pixy's ointment: a st…

Upon what grounds did the old fellow censure Dame Goody?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: ground, do · To what, where: old fellow censure

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1974 «English Fairy Tales, Dame Goody, the pixy's ointment: a stolen look that costs an eye» 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	Upon	upon	SCONJ	_	3 grounds	mark
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 grounds	nsubj
3	grounds	ground	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 grounds	ccomp
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 censure	det
6	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 censure	amod
7	fellow	fellow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 censure	amod
8	censure	censure	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
9	Dame	Dame	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 censure	appos
10	Goody	Goody	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 Dame	flat
11	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 grounds	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ground	present							tree rules
2	do	past		the old fellow censure					vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent censure=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 · ← Mova's choice

for spying on his family and stealing his ointment

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	for	for	SCONJ	_	2 spying	mark
2	spying	spy	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	on	on	ADP	_	5 family	case
4	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 family	nmod:poss
5	family	family	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 spying	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 stealing	cc
7	stealing	steal	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 spying	conj
8	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 ointment	nmod:poss
9	ointment	ointment	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 stealing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	spy	gerund				his family			vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer
2	steal	gerund		his ointment					vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location ointment=Theme

Option 2

for meddling with his affairs and his household secrets

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	for	for	SCONJ	_	2 meddling	mark
2	meddling	meddle	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	with	with	ADP	_	5 affairs	case
4	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 affairs	nmod:poss
5	affairs	affair	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 meddling	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 secrets	cc
7	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 secrets	nmod:poss
8	household	household	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 secrets	compound
9	secrets	secret	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 affairs	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	meddle	gerund						with his affairs and his household secrets	tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

for meddling with his affairs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	for	for	SCONJ	_	2 meddling	mark
2	meddling	meddle	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	with	with	ADP	_	5 affairs	case
4	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 affairs	nmod:poss
5	affairs	affair	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 meddling	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	meddle	gerund						with his affairs	tree rules

Option 4

for spying on his market

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	for	for	SCONJ	_	2 spying	mark
2	spying	spy	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	on	on	ADP	_	5 market	case
4	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 market	nmod:poss
5	market	market	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 spying	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	spy	gerund				his market			vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer
2	market		his = he						nom market «act transitive»: 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/1974-pg7439-part33/e4/