Exam question 4 · Tanglewood Tales, The Pomegranate Seeds, part 28: Proserpi…

Explain why Proserpina was unable to obtain assistance from her mother during her abduction.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, Proserpina · What happens: explain, be, obtain, abduct · To what, where: assistance · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 4 of lesson 2069 «Tanglewood Tales, The Pomegranate Seeds, part 28: Proserpina pulls up a strange shrub and is carried off by Pluto» 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	Explain	explain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	5 unable	advmod
3	Proserpina	Proserpina	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 unable	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 unable	cop
5	unable	unable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Explain	ccomp
6	to	to	PART	_	7 obtain	mark
7	obtain	obtain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 unable	xcomp
8	assistance	assistance	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 obtain	obj
9	from	from	ADP	_	11 mother	case
10	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 mother	nmod:poss
11	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 obtain	obl
12	during	during	ADP	_	14 abduction	case
13	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 abduction	nmod:poss
14	abduction	abduction	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 obtain	obl
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Explain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	explain speech: assert	imperative	you not said here				vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	is	past	Proserpina			unable property	tree rules
3	obtain	to-infinitive	Proserpina not said here	assistance	during Proserpina's abduction	from Proserpina's mother	vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent assistance=Theme from mother=Source
4	abduct		Proserpina				nom abduction «act transitive»: 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

Her mother was too far off to hear anything

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 mother	nmod:poss
2	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 hear	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 hear	cop
4	too	too	ADV	_	5 far	advmod
5	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	6 off	advmod
6	off	off	ADV	_	8 hear	advmod
7	to	to	PART	_	8 hear	mark
8	hear	hear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
9	anything	anything	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	8 hear	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	Her mother					hear, off property	tree rules

Option 2

Ceres was out of reach and had no way to know

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ceres	Ceres	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 reach	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 reach	cop
3	out	out	ADP	_	5 reach	case
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 reach	case
5	reach	reach	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 had	cc
7	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 reach	conj
8	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	9 way	det
9	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 had	obj
10	to	to	PART	_	11 know	mark
11	know	know	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 way	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	is	past	Ceres		reach	tree rules
2	have	past	Ceres not said here	no way		vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Patient
3	know	to-infinitive	Ceres not said here	no way not said here		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Ceres was far distant and could not hear her cries

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ceres	Ceres	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 distant	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 distant	cop
3	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	4 distant	advmod
4	distant	distant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 hear	cc
6	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 hear	aux
7	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	8 hear	advmod
8	hear	hear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 distant	conj
9	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 cries	nmod:poss
10	cries	cry	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 hear	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	past	Ceres		distant, far property	tree rules
2	not hear	could	Ceres not said here	Ceres's cries		vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer cry=Stimulus
3	cry		Ceres			nom cry «communication intransitive»: poss=agent

Option 4

Ceres was far distant and the stranger's chariot was too fast and dark for any voice to reach her in time

The tree, 22 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ceres	Ceres	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 distant	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 distant	cop
3	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	4 distant	advmod
4	distant	distant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 fast	cc
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 stranger	det
7	stranger	stranger	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 chariot	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 stranger	case
9	chariot	chariot	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 fast	nsubj
10	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 fast	cop
11	too	too	ADV	_	12 fast	advmod
12	fast	fast	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 distant	conj
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 dark	cc
14	dark	dark	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 fast	conj
15	for	for	SCONJ	_	19 reach	mark
16	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	17 voice	det
17	voice	voice	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 reach	nsubj
18	to	to	PART	_	19 reach	mark
19	reach	reach	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 fast	advcl
20	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 reach	obj
21	in	in	ADP	_	22 time	case
22	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 reach	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	Ceres			distant, far property	tree rules
2	is	past	the stranger's chariot			fast property	tree rules
3	be		the stranger's chariot not said here				tree rules
4	reach	to-infinitive	any voice	Ceres	time		vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent she=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.

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