Exam question 2 · Arabian Nights, Noureddin and the Beautiful Persian, part…

What was the principal cause of Noureddin's financial ruin?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Noureddin · What happens: be, ruin · To what, where: principal cause

This is exam question 2 of lesson 207 «Arabian Nights, Noureddin and the Beautiful Persian, part 47: Noureddin's friends desert him and the Persian is put up for sale» 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	5 cause	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 cause	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 cause	det
4	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 cause	amod
5	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	10 ruin	case
7	Noureddin	Noureddin	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 ruin	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 Noureddin	case
9	financial	financial	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 ruin	amod
10	ruin	ruin	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 cause	nmod
11	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 cause	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past		the principal cause				of Noureddin's financial ruin	tree rules
2	ruin		Noureddin						nom ruin «state 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

Unwise investments by his steward

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Unwise	unwise	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 investments	amod
2	investments	investment	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	by	by	ADP	_	5 steward	case
4	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 steward	nmod:poss
5	steward	steward	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 investments	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	invest		his steward						nom investment «act transitive»: by=agent

Option 2

Bad luck at dice

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Bad	bad	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 luck	amod
2	luck	luck	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	at	at	ADP	_	4 dice	case
4	dice	dice	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 luck	nmod

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

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

His prodigal expenditure upon his companions

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	His	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 expenditure	nmod:poss
2	prodigal	prodigal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 expenditure	amod
3	expenditure	expenditure	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	upon	upon	ADP	_	6 companions	case
5	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 companions	nmod:poss
6	companions	companion	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 expenditure	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	expend		His = he					upon his companions	nom expenditure «possession transitive»: poss=agent upon=obl

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

His wild gambling with the merchants

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	His	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 gambling	nmod:poss
2	wild	wild	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 gambling	amod
3	gambling	gambling	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	with	with	ADP	_	6 merchants	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 merchants	det
6	merchants	merchant	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 gambling	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	gamble		His = he					with the merchants	nom gambling «act intransitive»: poss=agent with=obl

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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