Exam question 4 · Arabian Nights, Noureddin and the Beautiful Persian, part…

Which statement accurately describes the conduct of Noureddin's companions upon learning of his insolvency?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: statement · What happens: describe, conduct · To what, where: conduct, companions

This is exam question 4 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	Which	which	DET	PronType=Int	2 statement	det
2	statement	statement	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 describes	nsubj
3	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	4 describes	advmod
4	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 conduct	det
6	conduct	conduct	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 describes	obj
7	of	of	ADP	_	10 companions	case
8	Noureddin	Noureddin	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 companions	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 Noureddin	case
10	companions	companion	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 conduct	nmod
11	upon	upon	ADP	_	12 learning	case
12	learning	learning	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 companions	nmod
13	of	of	ADP	_	15 insolvency	case
14	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 insolvency	nmod:poss
15	insolvency	insolvency	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 learning	nmod
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 describes	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	describe	present	which statement	the conduct of Noureddin's companions upon learning of statement's insolvency				accurately property	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent conduct=Theme
2	conduct			Noureddin's companions upon learning of statement's insolvency					nom conduct «act transitive»: of=patient

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 all left 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	3 left	nsubj
2	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	1 They	det
3	left	leave	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 left	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	leave	past	They	him = he					vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme

Option 2

They abandoned him, each making excuses

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 abandoned	nsubj
2	abandoned	abandon	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 abandoned	obj
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 making	punct
5	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	6 making	nsubj
6	making	make	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 abandoned	advcl
7	excuses	excuse	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 making	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	abandon	past	They	him = he					vn leave-51.2 «NP V NP.initial_location»: agent=Theme he=Source
2	make	gerund	each	excuses					vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset excuse=Product

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

They withdrew from his company, each citing a pretext

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 withdrew	nsubj
2	withdrew	withdraw	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	from	from	ADP	_	5 company	case
4	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 company	nmod:poss
5	company	company	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 withdrew	obl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 citing	punct
7	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	8 citing	nsubj
8	citing	cite	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 withdrew	advcl
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 pretext	det
10	pretext	pretext	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 citing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	withdraw	past	They			his company			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme from company=Initial_Location
2	cite	gerund	each	a pretext					vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pretext=Theme

Option 4

They left him, each with a flimsy excuse

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 left	nsubj
2	left	leave	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 left	obj
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 each	punct
5	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	2 left	obl
6	with	with	ADP	_	9 excuse	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 excuse	det
8	flimsy	flimsy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 excuse	amod
9	excuse	excuse	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 left	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	leave	past	They		him = he			with a flimsy excuse; each obl	vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP-Fulfilling PP.theme»: agent=Agent he=Recipient with excuse=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/207-pg128-part47/e4/