Exam question 4 · Tanglewood Tales, The Pygmies, part 10: a Pygmy spots a hu…

In what manner does the narrator characterise the giant's slumber during the episode?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: narrator, giant · What happens: characterise, slumber · To what, where: slumber, manner

This is exam question 4 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	In	in	ADP	_	3 manner	case
2	what	what	DET	PronType=Int	3 manner	det
3	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 characterise	obl
4	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 characterise	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 narrator	det
6	narrator	narrator	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 characterise	nsubj
7	characterise	characterise	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 giant	det
9	giant	giant	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 slumber	nmod:poss
10	's	's	PART	_	9 giant	case
11	slumber	slumber	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 characterise	obj
12	during	during	ADP	_	14 episode	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 episode	det
14	episode	episode	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 characterise	obl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 characterise	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	characterise	present · do-support	the narrator	the giant's slumber		what manner	during the episode		tree rules
2	slumber		the giant						nom slumber «state intransitive»: 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

He mutters peevish words throughout

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 mutters	nsubj
2	mutters	mutter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	peevish	peevish	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 words	amod
4	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 mutters	obj
5	throughout	throughout	ADP	_	2 mutters	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mutter speech: assert	present	He	peevish words					vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent word=Topic

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

He snores like the rush of a whirlwind

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 snores	nsubj
2	snores	snore	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	like	like	ADP	_	5 rush	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 rush	det
5	rush	rush	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 snores	obl
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 whirlwind	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 whirlwind	det
8	whirlwind	whirlwind	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 rush	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	snore	present	He					like the rush of a whirlwind	vn nonverbal_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	rush			a whirlwind					nom rush «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

He lies as silently as a stone

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 lies	nsubj
2	lies	lie	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	as	as	ADV	_	4 silently	advmod
4	silently	silently	ADV	_	2 lies	advmod
5	as	as	ADP	_	7 stone	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 stone	det
7	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 lies	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lie	present	He					as a stone; silently property	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

He breathes softly like a sleeping child

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 breathes	nsubj
2	breathes	breathe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	softly	softly	ADV	_	2 breathes	advmod
4	like	like	ADP	_	7 child	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 child	det
6	sleeping	sleeping	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 child	compound
7	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 breathes	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	breathe	present	He					like a sleeping child; softly property	vn breathe-40.1.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/e4/