Exam question 4 · Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace, part 22: hungry sailors…

What did the sailors perceive as they climbed the cliff?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: sailors · What happens: do, perceive, climb · To what, where: cliff

This is exam question 4 of lesson 2063 «Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace, part 22: hungry sailors follow the smell of roast meat up to the palace» 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	2 did	nsubj
2	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 sailors	det
4	sailors	sailor	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 perceive	nsubj
5	perceive	perceive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 did	ccomp
6	as	as	SCONJ	_	8 climbed	mark
7	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 climbed	nsubj
8	climbed	climb	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 perceive	ccomp
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 cliff	det
10	cliff	cliff	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 climbed	obj
11	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	do	past			tree rules
2	perceive	present	the sailors		vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
3	climb	past	sailors = sailor	the cliff	vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial_Location cliff=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

The white marble towers of the palace rising above the trees, glittering in the midday sun and seeming unreal

The tree, 19 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 towers	det
2	white	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 towers	amod
3	marble	marble	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 towers	compound
4	towers	tower	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 palace	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 palace	det
7	palace	palace	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 towers	nmod
8	rising	rise	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 palace	acl
9	above	above	ADP	_	11 trees	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 trees	det
11	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 rising	obl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 glittering	punct
13	glittering	glitter	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 rising	conj
14	in	in	ADP	_	17 sun	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 sun	det
16	midday	midday	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 sun	compound
17	sun	sun	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 glittering	obl
18	and	and	CCONJ	_	19 seeming	cc
19	seeming	seem	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 rising	conj
20	unreal	unreal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 seeming	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	other	roles by
1	rise	gerund	the palace not said here	the trees		vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent above tree=Location
2	glitter	gerund	the palace not said here	the midday sun		vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in sun=Location
3	seem	gerund	the palace not said here		unreal property	vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

The palace roofs and the sound of a distant feast over the hill

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 roofs	det
2	palace	palace	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 roofs	compound
3	roofs	roof	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 sound	cc
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 sound	det
6	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 roofs	conj
7	of	of	ADP	_	10 feast	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 feast	det
9	distant	distant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 feast	amod
10	feast	feast	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 sound	nmod
11	over	over	ADP	_	13 hill	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 hill	det
13	hill	hill	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 feast	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

The shining towers beyond the wood

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 towers	det
2	shining	shining	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 towers	compound
3	towers	tower	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
4	beyond	beyond	ADP	_	6 wood	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 wood	det
6	wood	wood	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 towers	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The white marble towers of the palace rising above the trees

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 towers	det
2	white	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 towers	amod
3	marble	marble	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 towers	compound
4	towers	tower	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 palace	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 palace	det
7	palace	palace	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 towers	nmod
8	rising	rise	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 palace	acl
9	above	above	ADP	_	11 trees	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 trees	det
11	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 rising	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	rise	gerund	the palace not said here			the trees			vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent above tree=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/2063-pg976-part22/e4/