Exam question 1 · Celtic Fairy Tales, The Story of Deirdre, part 1: a hidden…

Which of the following best describes the reason for Malcolm's decision to conceal his daughter in the hill?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Malcolm · What happens: follow, describe, conceal, decide · To what, where: reason, daughter, hill

This is exam question 1 of lesson 1994 «Celtic Fairy Tales, The Story of Deirdre, part 1: a hidden girl is found by a lost hunter, and the king sets out to take her» 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	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 describes	obj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 best	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 best	det
4	following	follow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 best	case
5	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	6 describes	nmod
6	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 reason	det
8	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 describes	obj
9	for	for	ADP	_	12 decision	case
10	Malcolm	Malcolm	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 decision	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 Malcolm	case
12	decision	decision	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 reason	nmod
13	to	to	PART	_	14 conceal	mark
14	conceal	conceal	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 reason	acl
15	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 daughter	nmod:poss
16	daughter	daughter	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 conceal	obj
17	in	in	ADP	_	19 hill	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 hill	det
19	hill	hill	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 conceal	obl
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 describes	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund					vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	describe	present		the reason		of the best; for Malcolm's decision	tree rules
3	conceal	to-infinitive		Malcolm's daughter	the hill		vn concealment-16 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent daughter=Patient in hill=Location
4	decide		Malcolm				nom decision «act transitive»: poss=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

He had been told that she would bring a war upon the king

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	4 told	nsubj
2	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 told	aux
3	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	4 told	aux:pass
4	told	tell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	that	that	SCONJ	_	8 bring	mark
6	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 bring	nsubj
7	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 bring	aux
8	bring	bring	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 told	xcomp
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 war	det
10	war	war	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 bring	obj
11	upon	upon	ADP	_	13 king	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 king	det
13	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 bring	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	past · perfect · passive		He					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic
2	bring not said to happen	would	she	a war				upon the king	vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent war=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

He had been warned that she would cause great bloodshed

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	4 warned	nsubj
2	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 warned	aux
3	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	4 warned	cop
4	warned	warn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	that	that	SCONJ	_	8 cause	mark
6	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 cause	nsubj
7	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 cause	aux
8	cause	cause	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 warned	ccomp
9	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 bloodshed	amod
10	bloodshed	bloodshed	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 cause	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	be speech: warn	past · perfect	He					warn property	tree rules
2	cause	would	she	great bloodshed					vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition bloodshed=Patient

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

He wanted her hidden away

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 wanted	nsubj
2	wanted	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 wanted	obj
4	hidden	hide	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 wanted	xcomp
5	away	away	ADV	_	4 hidden	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	want	past	He	her = she					tree rules
2	hide away not said to happen	participle	her = she not said here					away property	vn concealment-16-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

He had heard that the king would take her for a bride

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	3 heard	nsubj
2	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 heard	aux
3	heard	hear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	that	that	SCONJ	_	8 take	mark
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 king	det
6	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 take	nsubj
7	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 take	aux
8	take	take	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 heard	ccomp
9	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 take	obj
10	for	for	ADP	_	12 bride	case
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 bride	det
12	bride	bride	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 take	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hear	past · perfect	He						vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
2	take	would	the king	her = she				for a bride	vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent she=Theme for bride=Beneficiary

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/1994-pg7885-part13/e1/