Exam question 4 · Tanglewood Tales, The Golden Fleece, part 41: Medea helps…

State the purpose of ploughing the field before the dragon's teeth were sown.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: State purpose · What happens: plough, sow · To what, where: field, teeth

This is exam question 4 of lesson 2082 «Tanglewood Tales, The Golden Fleece, part 41: Medea helps Jason tame the brazen bulls and sow the dragon's teeth» 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	State	state	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 purpose	compound
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 purpose	det
3	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	SCONJ	_	5 ploughing	mark
5	ploughing	plough	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 purpose	acl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 field	det
7	field	field	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 ploughing	obj
8	before	before	SCONJ	_	14 sown	mark
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 dragon	det
10	dragon	dragon	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 teeth	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 dragon	case
12	teeth	tooth	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 sown	nsubj:pass
13	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 sown	aux:pass
14	sown	sow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 ploughing	advcl
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 purpose	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	plough	gerund	the State purpose not said here	the field					vn wipe_instr-10.4.2 «NP V NP.initial_location»: agent=Agent field=Initial_Location
2	sow	past · passive		the dragon's teeth					vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.theme»: subject=Theme

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

To cut deep furrows so the water can run from the field into the river

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 cut	mark
2	cut	cut	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	deep	deep	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 furrows	amod
4	furrows	furrow	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 cut	obj
5	so	so	SCONJ	_	9 run	mark
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 water	det
7	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 run	nsubj
8	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 run	aux
9	run	run	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 cut	advcl
10	from	from	ADP	_	12 field	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 field	det
12	field	field	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 run	obl
13	into	into	ADP	_	15 river	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 river	det
15	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 run	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cut	to-infinitive		deep furrows					vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset furrow=Product
2	run	can	the water			the field		into the river result	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme into river=Result

Option 2

To make the soil soft for planting

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 make	mark
2	make	make	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 soil	det
4	soil	soil	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 make	obj
5	soft	soft	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 make	xcomp
6	for	for	ADP	_	7 planting	case
7	planting	planting	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 soft	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	to-infinitive		the soil				soft property	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset soil=Product

Option 3

To kill the weeds and grass

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 kill	mark
2	kill	kill	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 weeds	det
4	weeds	weed	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 kill	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 grass	cc
6	grass	grass	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 weeds	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	kill	to-infinitive		the weeds and grass					vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent weed=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

To prepare black earth for sowing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 prepare	mark
2	prepare	prepare	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 earth	amod
4	earth	earth	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 prepare	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 sowing	case
6	sowing	sowing	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 prepare	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prepare	to-infinitive		black earth				for sowing	vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent earth=Product for sowing=Beneficiary

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/2082-pg976-part41/e4/