Exam question 1 · A Wonder-Book, The Minotaur, part 4: Medea's poisoned wine…

To what end did the nephews propose that Theseus present himself as a stranger?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: end, nephews · What happens: do, propose · To what, where: present

This is exam question 1 of lesson 2045 «A Wonder-Book, The Minotaur, part 4: Medea's poisoned wine nearly kills Theseus before his father recognizes him» 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	To	to	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 propose	obl
3	end	end	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	nsubj
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 nephews	det
6	nephews	nephew	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 propose	nsubj
7	propose	propose	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	that	that	SCONJ	_	10 present	mark
9	Theseus	theseus	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 present	det
10	present	present	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 propose	obj
11	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Emp Reflex=Yes	10 present	nmod:unmarked
12	as	as	ADP	_	14 stranger	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 stranger	det
14	stranger	stranger	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 propose	obl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 propose	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	past	end						vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	propose	present	the nephews	theseus present end				as a stranger	vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent present=Theme to what=Recipient

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

To prevent the king from recognising him so that the nephews could strike first at the feast

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 prevent	mark
2	prevent	prevent	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 king	det
4	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 prevent	obj
5	from	from	SCONJ	_	6 recognising	mark
6	recognising	recognise	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 prevent	advcl
7	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 recognising	obj
8	so	so	SCONJ	_	13 strike	mark
9	that	that	SCONJ	_	13 strike	mark
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 nephews	det
11	nephews	nephew	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 strike	nsubj
12	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 strike	aux
13	strike	strike	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 prevent	advcl
14	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	13 strike	advmod
15	at	at	ADP	_	17 feast	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 feast	det
17	feast	feast	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 strike	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	prevent	to-infinitive		the king		vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer king=Theme
2	recognise	gerund		king		vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus
3	strike	could	the nephews		at the feast; first property	vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent at feast=Patient

Option 2

To discover if the king would accept him

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 discover	mark
2	discover	discover	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	if	if	SCONJ	_	7 accept	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 king	det
5	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 accept	nsubj
6	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 accept	aux
7	accept	accept	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 discover	advcl
8	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 accept	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	discover	to-infinitive							vn discover-84-1 «NP V PP.topic S_ING»: agent=Agent
2	accept a condition, not said to happen	would	the king	him = he					vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

To ascertain whether Aegeus would recognise him

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 ascertain	mark
2	ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	whether	whether	SCONJ	_	6 recognise	mark
4	Aegeus	Aegeus	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 recognise	nsubj
5	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 recognise	aux
6	recognise	recognise	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 ascertain	advcl
7	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 recognise	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	to-infinitive							vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent
2	recognise	would	Aegeus	him = he					vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer he=Stimulus

Option 4

To learn whether Aegeus knew his face

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 learn	mark
2	learn	learn	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	whether	whether	SCONJ	_	5 knew	mark
4	Aegeus	Aegeus	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 knew	nsubj
5	knew	know	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 learn	ccomp
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 face	nmod:poss
7	face	face	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 knew	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	learn	to-infinitive							vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V what S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	know	past	Aegeus	Aegeus's face					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer face=Stimulus

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/2045-pg976-part4/e1/