Exam question 3 · English Fairy Tales, The Three Heads of the Well: a rude g…

By what means did the cobbler come to possess the medicaments employed in the cure?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: cobbler, medicaments · What happens: mean, come, possess, employ · To what, where: cure

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1976 «English Fairy Tales, The Three Heads of the Well: a rude girl is cursed by the heads and wed to a cobbler» 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	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 come	obl
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 come	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 cobbler	det
6	cobbler	cobbler	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 come	nsubj
7	come	come	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	to	to	PART	_	9 possess	mark
9	possess	possess	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 come	xcomp
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 medicaments	det
11	medicaments	medicament	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 employed	nsubj
12	employed	employ	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 possess	ccomp
13	in	in	ADP	_	15 cure	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 cure	det
15	cure	cure	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 employed	obl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 come	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	roles by
1	mean	present			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	come	past · do-support	the cobbler		tree rules
3	possess	to-infinitive	the cobbler not said here		tree rules
4	employ	past	the medicaments	the cure	vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=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

a gift from an aged hermit who lived beside the king's road

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 gift	det
2	gift	gift	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	from	from	ADP	_	6 hermit	case
4	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 hermit	det
5	aged	aged	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 hermit	amod
6	hermit	hermit	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 gift	nmod
7	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 lived	nsubj
8	lived	live	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 hermit	acl:relcl
9	beside	beside	ADP	_	13 road	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 king	det
11	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 road	nmod:poss
12	's	's	PART	_	11 king	case
13	road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 lived	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	live	past	a aged hermit			the king's road			vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme beside road=Location

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

he bought them from a travelling peddler at the fair in town

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 bought	nsubj
2	bought	buy	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 bought	obj
4	from	from	ADP	_	7 peddler	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 peddler	det
6	travelling	travelling	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 peddler	compound
7	peddler	peddler	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 bought	obl
8	at	at	ADP	_	10 fair	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 fair	det
10	fair	fair	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 bought	obl
11	in	in	ADP	_	12 town	case
12	town	town	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 fair	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	buy	past	he	them = they		the fair in town		from a travelling peddler	vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent they=Theme from peddler=Source at fair=Asset

Option 3

a present from an old monk

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 present	det
2	present	present	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	from	from	ADP	_	6 monk	case
4	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 monk	det
5	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 monk	amod
6	monk	monk	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 present	nmod

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

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

a gift from an aged hermit

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 gift	det
2	gift	gift	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	from	from	ADP	_	6 hermit	case
4	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 hermit	det
5	aged	aged	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 hermit	amod
6	hermit	hermit	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 gift	nmod

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

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/1976-pg7439-part35/e3/