Exam question 1 · Beside the Fire, Guleesh, part 4: the girl is struck dumb…

Which phrase, in the passage, shows that the fairies were prevented from carrying off the girl?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: phrase · What happens: show, prevent, carry off · To what, where: fairies, girl · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 1 of lesson 1985 «Beside the Fire, Guleesh, part 4: the girl is struck dumb and Guleesh hides her at the priest's house» 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	Which	which	DET	PronType=Int	2 phrase	det
2	phrase	phrase	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 shows	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 passage	punct
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 passage	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 passage	det
6	passage	passage	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 phrase	conj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 phrase	punct
8	shows	show	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	that	that	SCONJ	_	13 prevented	mark
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 fairies	det
11	fairies	fairy	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 prevented	nsubj:pass
12	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 prevented	aux:pass
13	prevented	prevent	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 shows	ccomp
14	from	from	SCONJ	_	15 carrying	mark
15	carrying	carry	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	13 prevented	advcl
16	off	off	ADP	_	18 girl	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 girl	det
18	girl	girl	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 carrying	obl
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 shows	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	show	present	which phrase and the passage		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	prevent	past · passive		the fairies	vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
3	carry off	gerund		the girl	vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent girl=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

They wanted to take the girl but could not do it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 wanted	nsubj
2	wanted	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 take	mark
4	take	take	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 wanted	xcomp
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 girl	det
6	girl	girl	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 take	obj
7	but	but	CCONJ	_	10 do	cc
8	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 do	aux
9	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	10 do	advmod
10	do	do	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 take	conj
11	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 do	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	roles by
1	want	past	They			vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
2	take not said to happen	to-infinitive	They not said here		the girl	vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument girl=Destination
3	not do	could	They not said here	it		vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality

Option 2

Although they had great power, they still failed to carry the girl off into the rath with them

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Although	although	SCONJ	_	3 had	mark
2	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 had	nsubj
3	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 failed	advcl
4	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 power	amod
5	power	power	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 had	obj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 had	punct
7	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 failed	nsubj
8	still	still	ADV	_	9 failed	advmod
9	failed	fail	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	to	to	PART	_	11 carry	mark
11	carry	carry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 failed	xcomp
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 girl	det
13	girl	girl	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 carry	obj
14	off	off	ADP	_	11 carry	compound:prt
15	into	into	ADP	_	17 rath	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 rath	det
17	rath	rath	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 carry	obl
18	with	with	ADP	_	19 them	case
19	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 carry	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	past	they	great power				vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent power=Patient
2	fail	past	they			still		vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
3	not carry off	to-infinitive	they not said here	the girl	the rath		with them = they	vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent girl=Theme

Option 3

The girl was taken by them and given a new name

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 girl	det
2	girl	girl	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 taken	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 taken	aux:pass
4	taken	take	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 them	case
6	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 taken	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 given	cc
8	given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 taken	conj
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 name	det
10	new	new	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 name	amod
11	name	name	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 given	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	take	past · passive	them = they	the girl					vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument subject=Destination
2	give	participle	them = they not said here	a new name					vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent name=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

They had no power at all to carry off the girl

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 had	nsubj
2	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 power	det
4	power	power	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 had	obj
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 all	case
6	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	2 had	obl
7	to	to	PART	_	8 carry	mark
8	carry	carry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 had	advcl
9	off	off	ADP	_	8 carry	compound:prt
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 girl	det
11	girl	girl	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 carry	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	past	They	no power		all			vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent power=Patient
2	carry off	to-infinitive	They not said here	the girl					vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent girl=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/1985-pg7885-part4/e1/