Exam question 1 · Tanglewood Tales, The Golden Fleece, part 37: Jason with o…

Which phrase in the passage most clearly shows King Pelias's hostile intention towards Jason?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: phrase, King Pelias · What happens: show, intend · To what, where: hostile intention

This is exam question 1 of lesson 2078 «Tanglewood Tales, The Golden Fleece, part 37: Jason with one sandal meets King Pelias and gets a quest» 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 phrase	det
2	phrase	phrase	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 shows	nsubj
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 passage	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 passage	det
5	passage	passage	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 phrase	nmod
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 clearly	advmod
7	clearly	clearly	ADV	_	8 shows	advmod
8	shows	show	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	King	King	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 Pelias	compound
10	Pelias	Pelias	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 intention	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 Pelias	case
12	hostile	hostile	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 intention	amod
13	intention	intention	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 shows	obj
14	towards	towards	ADP	_	15 Jason	case
15	Jason	Jason	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 intention	nmod
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 shows	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	show	present	which phrase in the passage	King Pelias's hostile intention				towards Jason; clearly property	vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent intention=Patient towards jason=Recipient
2	intend		King Pelias					towards Jason	nom intention «cognition transitive»: poss=agent towards=obl

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

he clutched the knife

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 clutched	nsubj
2	clutched	clutch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 knife	det
4	knife	knife	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 clutched	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	clutch	past	he	the knife					vn hold-15.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent knife=Theme

Option 2

he gripped the sacred blade in his hand

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 gripped	nsubj
2	gripped	grip	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 blade	det
4	sacred	sacred	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 blade	amod
5	blade	blade	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 gripped	obj
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 hand	case
7	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 hand	nmod:poss
8	hand	hand	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 gripped	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grip	past	he	the sacred blade		his hand			vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent blade=Experiencer

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

"he clutched more closely the great knife in his hand"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 clutched	punct
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 clutched	nsubj
3	clutched	clutch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	5 closely	advmod
5	closely	closely	ADV	_	3 clutched	advmod
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 knife	det
7	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 knife	amod
8	knife	knife	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 clutched	obj
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 hand	case
10	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 hand	nmod:poss
11	hand	hand	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 clutched	obl
12	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 clutched	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	clutch in a quote	past	he	the great knife		his hand		closely property	vn hold-15.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent knife=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

he raised the bronze blade and stared at the crowd

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 raised	nsubj
2	raised	raise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 blade	det
4	bronze	bronze	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 blade	compound
5	blade	blade	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 raised	obj
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 stared	cc
7	stared	stare	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 raised	conj
8	at	at	ADP	_	10 crowd	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 crowd	det
10	crowd	crowd	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 stared	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	raise	past	he	the bronze blade					vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent blade=Theme
2	stare	past	he not said here					at the crowd	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at crowd=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/2078-pg976-part37/e1/