Exam question 4 · Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace, part 27: Ulysses wins ba…

For what reason were the sea nymphs unwilling to accompany Proserpina onto the dry land?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: sea nymphs · What happens: be, unwill, accompany · To what, where: sea nymphs, Proserpina, dry land

This is exam question 4 of lesson 2068 «Tanglewood Tales, Circe's Palace, part 27: Ulysses wins back his men from the swine and sees the sea nymphs» 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	For	for	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 nymphs	obl
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 what	acl:relcl
4	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 nymphs	cop
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 nymphs	det
6	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 nymphs	compound
7	nymphs	nymph	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
8	unwilling	unwill	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 nymphs	acl
9	to	to	PART	_	10 accompany	mark
10	accompany	accompany	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 unwilling	xcomp
11	Proserpina	Proserpina	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 accompany	obj
12	onto	onto	ADP	_	15 land	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 land	det
14	dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 land	amod
15	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 accompany	obl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 nymphs	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	is a	past		the sea nymphs		tree rules
2	unwill	gerund	the sea nymphs not said here			tree rules
3	accompany	to-infinitive	the sea nymphs not said here	Proserpina	the dry land	vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent proserpina=Theme onto land=Destination

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

They feared their sea home would vanish without the salt breeze

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 feared	nsubj
2	feared	fear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 vanish	advcl
3	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 sea	nmod:poss
4	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 feared	obj
5	home	home	ADV	_	2 feared	advmod
6	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 vanish	aux
7	vanish	vanish	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	without	without	ADP	_	11 breeze	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 breeze	det
10	salt	salt	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 breeze	compound
11	breeze	breeze	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 vanish	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fear	past	They	their sea				home property	vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer sea=Stimulus
2	vanish	would						without the salt breeze	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

They feared faintness without the salt breeze of the ocean

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 feared	nsubj
2	feared	fear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	faintness	faintness	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 feared	obj
4	without	without	ADP	_	7 breeze	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 breeze	det
6	salt	salt	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 breeze	compound
7	breeze	breeze	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 feared	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 ocean	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 ocean	det
10	ocean	ocean	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 breeze	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fear	past	They	faintness				without the salt breeze of the ocean	vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer faintness=Stimulus
2	breeze		the ocean						nom breeze «phenomenon intransitive»: of=agent

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

They feared the land

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 feared	nsubj
2	feared	fear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 land	det
4	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 feared	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fear	past	They	the land					vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer land=Stimulus

Option 4

They dreaded the dry land air and the heat of the sun

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 dreaded	nsubj
2	dreaded	dread	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 air	det
4	dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 air	amod
5	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 air	compound
6	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 dreaded	obj
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 heat	cc
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 heat	det
9	heat	heat	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 air	conj
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 sun	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 sun	det
12	sun	sun	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 heat	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dread	past	They	the dry land air and the heat of the sun					vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer air=Stimulus
2	heat		the sun						nom heat «phenomenon intransitive»: of=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/2068-pg976-part27/e4/