Exam question 4 · Tanglewood Tales, The Golden Fleece, part 37: Jason with o…
Which term correctly identifies the literary device in the Oak's utterance, "a deep bass voice, speaking as distinctly as a tree could be expected to speak"?
Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: term, tree, Oak · What happens: identify, speak, expect, utter · To what, where: literary device, utterance, tree · Speech: someone speaks here
This is exam question 4 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 term | det |
| 2 | term | term | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 identifies | nsubj |
| 3 | correctly | correctly | ADV | _ | 4 identifies | advmod |
| 4 | identifies | identify | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 device | det |
| 6 | literary | literary | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 device | amod |
| 7 | device | device | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 identifies | obj |
| 8 | in | in | ADP | _ | 12 utterance | case |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 Oak | det |
| 10 | Oak | Oak | PROPN | Number=Sing | 12 utterance | nmod:poss |
| 11 | 's | 's | PART | _ | 10 Oak | case |
| 12 | utterance | utterance | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 device | nmod |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 voice | punct |
| 14 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 18 voice | punct |
| 15 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 18 voice | det |
| 16 | deep | deep | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 18 voice | amod |
| 17 | bass | bass | NOUN | Number=Sing | 18 voice | compound |
| 18 | voice | voice | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 identifies | obl |
| 19 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 20 speaking | punct |
| 20 | speaking | speak | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 4 identifies | advcl |
| 21 | as | as | ADV | _ | 22 distinctly | advmod |
| 22 | distinctly | distinctly | ADV | _ | 20 speaking | advmod |
| 23 | as | as | SCONJ | _ | 28 expected | mark |
| 24 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 25 tree | det |
| 25 | tree | tree | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 expected | nsubj:pass |
| 26 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 28 expected | aux |
| 27 | be | be | AUX | VerbForm=Inf | 28 expected | aux:pass |
| 28 | expected | expect | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 20 speaking | advcl |
| 29 | to | to | PART | _ | 30 speak | mark |
| 30 | speak | speak | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 28 expected | xcomp |
| 31 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 30 speak | punct |
| 32 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 4 identifies | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | identify | present | which term | the literary device | the Oak's utterance | a deep bass voice obl; correctly property | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent device=Theme | ||
| 2 | speak speech: other in a quote | gerund | which term not said here | distinctly property | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 3 | expect in a quote | could · passive | a tree | tree rules | |||||
| 4 | speak speech: other not said to happen, in a quote | to-infinitive | a tree not said here | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent | |||||
| 5 | utter | the Oak | nom utterance «communication 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 · ✓ the right answer
Personification
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Personification | personification | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2 · ← Mova's choice
Personification, giving the tree a human voice
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Personification | personification | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 2 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 3 giving | punct |
| 3 | giving | give | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 1 Personification | acl |
| 4 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 5 tree | det |
| 5 | tree | tree | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 giving | obj |
| 6 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 8 voice | det |
| 7 | human | human | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 voice | amod |
| 8 | voice | voice | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 giving | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | give | gerund | Personification not said here | the tree | vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent tree=Recipient voice=Theme |
Option 3
Alliteration
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alliteration | alliteration | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4
Onomatopoeia
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Onomatopoeia | onomatopoeia | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
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/e4/