Exam question 3 · Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace, part 26: Ulysses outwits…

In what manner did the beasts comport themselves upon Ulysses's arrival on the lawn?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: beasts, Ulysses · What happens: do, comport, arrive · To what, where: manner, beasts, lawn

This is exam question 3 of lesson 2067 «Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace, part 26: Ulysses outwits Circe with a magic flower and frightens her into begging for mercy» 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	4 did	obl
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 beasts	det
6	beasts	beast	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 comport	nsubj
7	comport	comport	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 did	parataxis
8	themselves	themselves	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	7 comport	obj
9	upon	upon	ADP	_	12 arrival	case
10	Ulysses	Ulysses	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 arrival	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 Ulysses	case
12	arrival	arrival	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 comport	obl
13	on	on	ADP	_	15 lawn	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 lawn	det
15	lawn	lawn	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 comport	obl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	do	past			what manner		vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	comport	present	the beasts	beasts = beast	the lawn	upon Ulysses's arrival	tree rules
3	arrive		Ulysses				nom arrival «act 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

They growled and kept back from him

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 growled	nsubj
2	growled	growl	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 kept	cc
4	kept	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 growled	conj
5	back	back	ADV	_	4 kept	advmod
6	from	from	ADP	_	7 him	case
7	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 kept	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	growl	past	They						vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	keep back	past	They not said here					from him = he	vn forbid-64.4 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Causer from he=Eventuality

Option 2

They snarled and backed away slowly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 snarled	nsubj
2	snarled	snarl	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 backed	cc
4	backed	back	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 snarled	conj
5	away	away	ADV	_	4 backed	advmod
6	slowly	slowly	ADV	_	4 backed	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	snarl	past	They						vn animal_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	back away	past	They not said here					away, slowly property	vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

They barked loudly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 barked	nsubj
2	barked	bark	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	loudly	loudly	ADV	_	2 barked	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	bark	past	They					loudly property	vn animal_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

They yelped and glared while keeping their distance

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 yelped	nsubj
2	yelped	yelp	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 glared	cc
4	glared	glare	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 yelped	conj
5	while	while	SCONJ	_	6 keeping	mark
6	keeping	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 glared	ccomp
7	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 distance	nmod:poss
8	distance	distance	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 keeping	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	yelp	past	They		vn animal_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	glare	past	They not said here		tree rules
3	keep	gerund	They not said here	their distance	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent distance=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/2067-pg976-part26/e3/