Exam question 3 · A Wonder-Book, The Minotaur, part 4: Medea's poisoned wine…

What circumstance indicated to Medea that her preparation was effective?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: preparation, her · What happens: indicate, be, prepare · To what, where: circumstance, Medea

This is exam question 3 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	What	what	DET	PronType=Int	2 circumstance	det
2	circumstance	circumstance	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	indicated	indicate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 circumstance	acl
4	to	to	ADP	_	5 Medea	case
5	Medea	medea	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 indicated	obl
6	that	that	SCONJ	_	10 effective	mark
7	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 preparation	nmod:poss
8	preparation	preparation	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 effective	nsubj
9	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 effective	cop
10	effective	effective	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 Medea	acl
11	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 circumstance	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	indicate	participle		what circumstance not said here	to Medea	vn indicate-78-1 «NP V PP.recipient that S»: agent=Pivot to medea=Experiencer
2	is	past	her preparation	Medea not said here	effective property	tree rules
3	prepare		her = she			nom preparation «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 · ← Mova's choice

The king's servant tasted the wine and fell to the floor before anyone else could drink it

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 king	det
2	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 servant	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 king	case
4	servant	servant	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 tasted	nsubj
5	tasted	taste	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 wine	det
7	wine	wine	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 tasted	obj
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 fell	cc
9	fell	fall	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 tasted	conj
10	to	to	ADP	_	12 floor	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 floor	det
12	floor	floor	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 fell	obl
13	before	before	SCONJ	_	17 drink	mark
14	anyone	anyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	17 drink	nsubj
15	else	else	ADV	_	14 anyone	advmod
16	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	17 drink	aux
17	drink	drink	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 fell	advcl
18	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	17 drink	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	taste	past	the king's servant	the wine		vn seem-109 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Theme wine=Attribute
2	fall	past	the king's servant not said here		to the floor	vn acquiesce-95.1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to floor=Theme
3	drink	could	anyone	wine		vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The fly fell dead into the goblet

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 fly	det
2	fly	fly	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 fell	nsubj
3	fell	fall	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 fell	xcomp
5	into	into	ADP	_	7 goblet	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 goblet	det
7	goblet	goblet	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 fell	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fall	past	the fly					into the goblet result; dead property	vn become-109.1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient into goblet=Result

Option 3

The wine turned sour and bitter

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 wine	det
2	wine	wine	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 turned	nsubj
3	turned	turn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	sour	sour	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 turned	xcomp
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 bitter	cc
6	bitter	bitter	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 sour	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	turn	past	the wine					sour property	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

The cup cracked in two pieces

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cup	det
2	cup	cup	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	cracked	crack	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 cup	acl
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 pieces	case
5	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 pieces	nummod
6	pieces	piece	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 cracked	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	crack	participle		the cup not said here		two pieces			vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in piece=Location

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/e3/