Exam question 4 · Celtic Fairy Tales, Andrew Coffey, part 35: Ivan's honesty…

By what means did the four men kindle their fire beneath the tree?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: four men, men · What happens: mean, kindle, fire · To what, where: fire

This is exam question 4 of lesson 2016 «Celtic Fairy Tales, Andrew Coffey, part 35: Ivan's honesty and the lord's purse, then a haunted cabin and a man in a box» 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	8 kindle	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=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 kindle	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 men	det
6	four	four	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 men	nummod
7	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 kindle	nsubj
8	kindle	kindle	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
9	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 fire	nmod:poss
10	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 kindle	obj
11	beneath	beneath	ADP	_	13 tree	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 tree	det
13	tree	tree	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 kindle	obl
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 kindle	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	mean	present				vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	kindle	past · do-support	the four men	men's fire	beneath the tree	vn engender-27.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition fire=Patient
3	fire		men = man			nom fire «event 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 · ✓ the right answer

by tinder and flint struck together

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	ADP	_	2 tinder	case
2	tinder	tinder	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 flint	cc
4	flint	flint	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 tinder	conj
5	struck	strike	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 tinder	acl
6	together	together	ADV	_	5 struck	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	strike	participle		tinder and flint not said here				together property	vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

by striking a steel bar against a flint stone that the men had brought up the hill

The tree, 17 words

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	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 bar	det
4	steel	steel	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 bar	compound
5	bar	bar	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 striking	obj
6	against	against	ADP	_	9 stone	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 stone	det
8	flint	flint	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 stone	compound
9	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 striking	obl
10	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	14 brought	nsubj:pass
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 men	det
12	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 brought	nsubj:pass
13	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 brought	aux
14	brought	bring	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 stone	acl:relcl
15	up	up	ADP	_	14 brought	compound:prt
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 hill	det
17	hill	hill	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 brought	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	strike	gerund		a steel bar				against a flint stone	vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent bar=Instrument against stone=Patient
2	bring up	past · perfect · passive		a flint stone					tree rules

Option 3

by a tinderbox and flint struck hard together beside the tree

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	ADP	_	3 tinderbox	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 tinderbox	det
3	tinderbox	tinderbox	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 struck	obl
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 flint	cc
5	flint	flint	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 tinderbox	conj
6	struck	strike	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	hard	hard	ADV	Degree=Pos	6 struck	advmod
8	together	together	ADV	_	6 struck	advmod
9	beside	beside	ADP	_	11 tree	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 tree	det
11	tree	tree	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 struck	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	strike	past				the tree		by a tinderbox and flint; hard, together property	vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by tinderbox=Location

Option 4

with a lantern and some dry moss

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	with	with	ADP	_	3 lantern	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 lantern	det
3	lantern	lantern	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 moss	cc
5	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	7 moss	det
6	dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 moss	amod
7	moss	moss	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lantern	conj

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/2016-pg7885-part35/e4/