Exam question 4 · Tanglewood Tales, The Minotaur, part 6: Theseus sails to C…

What reply did Theseus make when he was asked whether he was appalled at the prospect of being devoured?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: Theseus · What happens: make, ask, appall, devour · To what, where: Theseus, prospect

This is exam question 4 of lesson 2047 «Tanglewood Tales, The Minotaur, part 6: Theseus sails to Crete and meets the brazen giant Talus» 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	PRON	PronType=Int	5 make	obj
2	reply	reply	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 make	aux
3	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 make	aux
4	Theseus	Theseus	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 make	nsubj
5	make	make	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	9 asked	advmod
7	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 asked	nsubj
8	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 asked	aux:pass
9	asked	ask	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 make	advcl
10	whether	whether	SCONJ	_	13 appalled	mark
11	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 appalled	nsubj:pass
12	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 appalled	aux:pass
13	appalled	appall	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 asked	advcl
14	at	at	ADP	_	16 prospect	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 prospect	det
16	prospect	prospect	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 appalled	obl
17	of	of	SCONJ	_	19 devoured	mark
18	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	19 devoured	aux:pass
19	devoured	devour	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	16 prospect	acl
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 make	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	make	present · do-support	Theseus			vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Product
2	ask speech: ask	past · passive		Theseus		vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient
3	appall	past · passive		Theseus	the prospect	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer
4	devour	gerund · passive		the prospect not said here		vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»

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 right answer

he gave his life freely

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 gave	nsubj
2	gave	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 life	nmod:poss
4	life	life	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 gave	obj
5	freely	freely	ADV	_	2 gave	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	give	past	he	his life				freely property	vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Theme

Option 2

he begged for mercy

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 begged	nsubj
2	begged	beg	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	for	for	ADP	_	4 mercy	case
4	mercy	mercy	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 begged	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	beg speech: request	past	he					for mercy	vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V PP.Topic»: agent=Agent for mercy=Topic

Option 3

he offered his life freely to 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	2 offered	nsubj
2	offered	offer	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 life	nmod:poss
4	life	life	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 offered	obj
5	freely	freely	ADV	_	2 offered	advmod
6	to	to	ADP	_	8 king	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 king	det
8	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 offered	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	offer	past	he	his life	the king			freely property	vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP PP.goal»: agent=Agent life=Theme to king=Goal

Option 4

he refused the offer

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 refused	nsubj
2	refused	refuse	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 offer	det
4	offer	offer	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 refused	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	refuse	past	he	the offer					vn reject-77.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent offer=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/2047-pg976-part6/e4/