Exam question 2 · Tanglewood Tales, The Pomegranate Seeds, part 33: Ceres te…

Which action of Ceres is most clearly motivated by her grief for Proserpina?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: grief, Ceres · What happens: motivate, act · To what, where: action

This is exam question 2 of lesson 2074 «Tanglewood Tales, The Pomegranate Seeds, part 33: Ceres tests the baby in the fire, then lets the earth go barren» 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 action	det
2	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 motivated	nsubj:pass
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 Ceres	case
4	Ceres	Ceres	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 action	nmod
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 motivated	aux:pass
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 clearly	advmod
7	clearly	clearly	ADV	_	8 motivated	advmod
8	motivated	motivate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
9	by	by	ADP	_	11 grief	case
10	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 grief	nmod:poss
11	grief	grief	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 motivated	obl
12	for	for	ADP	_	13 Proserpina	case
13	Proserpina	Proserpina	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 grief	nmod
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 motivated	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	motivate	present · passive	Ceres's grief for Proserpina	which action of Ceres				clearly property	vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient
2	act		Ceres						nom action «act intransitive»: of=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 gift of grain to Triptolemus

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 gift	nmod:poss
2	gift	gift	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 grain	case
4	grain	grain	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 gift	nmod
5	to	to	ADP	_	6 Triptolemus	case
6	Triptolemus	Triptolemus	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 gift	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	gift		Her = she	grain				to Triptolemus	nom gift «possession transitive»: poss=agent of=patient to=obl

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Her wandering

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 wandering	nmod:poss
2	wandering	wandering	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wander		Her = she						nom wandering «act transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The withholding of all growth from the earth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 withholding	det
2	withholding	withholding	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 growth	case
4	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	5 growth	det
5	growth	growth	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 withholding	nmod
6	from	from	ADP	_	8 earth	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 earth	det
8	earth	earth	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 growth	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	withhold			all growth from the earth					nom withholding «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

The sending of the herald to Pluto

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 sending	det
2	sending	send	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 herald	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 herald	det
5	herald	herald	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 sending	obl
6	to	to	ADP	_	7 Pluto	case
7	Pluto	Pluto	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 sending	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	send	gerund			Pluto			of the herald	vn send-11.1-1 «NP V NP PP.initial_location PP.destination»: agent=Agent of herald=Initial_Location to pluto=Destination

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/2074-pg976-part33/e2/