Exam question 2 · Tanglewood Tales, The Pygmies, part 10: a Pygmy spots a hu…

According to the narrative, what is the chief distinguishing feature of the approaching figure?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: narrative · What happens: accord, be, approach · To what, where: chief distinguishing feature

This is exam question 2 of lesson 2051 «Tanglewood Tales, The Pygmies, part 10: a Pygmy spots a huge stranger coming and wakes the sleeping giant» 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	According	accord	VERB	ExtPos=ADP Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 narrative	case
2	to	to	ADP	_	1 According	fixed
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 narrative	det
4	narrative	narrative	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 feature	punct
6	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	11 feature	nsubj
7	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 feature	cop
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 feature	det
9	chief	chief	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 feature	amod
10	distinguishing	distinguishing	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 feature	amod
11	feature	feature	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 narrative	appos
12	of	of	ADP	_	15 figure	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 figure	det
14	approaching	approach	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	15 figure	amod
15	figure	figure	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 feature	nmod
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 narrative	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	accord	gerund				vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent
2	is a	present	the narrative	the chief distinguishing feature	of the approaching figure	tree rules
3	approach	gerund				vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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

It is a mountain of stone and earth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 mountain	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 mountain	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 mountain	det
4	mountain	mountain	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 stone	case
6	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 mountain	nmod
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 earth	cc
8	earth	earth	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 mountain	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a mountain and earth				of stone	tree rules

Option 2

It is a hostile army of Pygmies

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 army	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 army	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 army	det
4	hostile	hostile	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 army	amod
5	army	army	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 Pygmies	case
7	Pygmies	pygmy	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 army	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a hostile army				of Pygmies	tree rules

Option 3

It is a flock of migratory cranes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 flock	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 flock	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 flock	det
4	flock	flock	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 cranes	case
6	migratory	migratory	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 cranes	compound
7	cranes	crane	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 flock	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a flock				of migratory cranes	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It is a human shape of considerable stature

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 shape	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 shape	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 shape	det
4	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 shape	amod
5	shape	shape	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 stature	case
7	considerable	considerable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 stature	amod
8	stature	stature	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 shape	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a human shape				of considerable stature	tree rules

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/2051-pg976-part10/e2/