Exam question 4 · Arabian Nights, Sidi-Nouman, part 1: the blind man's curse…

By what means did the blind man atone for the sin of avarice?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: blind man · What happens: mean, atone

This is exam question 4 of lesson 216 «Arabian Nights, Sidi-Nouman, part 1: the blind man's curse ends, and the Caliph questions the cruel young man» 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	By	by	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 atone	obl
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 atone	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 man	det
6	blind	blind	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 man	amod
7	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 atone	nsubj
8	atone	atone	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
9	for	for	ADP	_	11 sin	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 sin	det
11	sin	sin	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 atone	obl
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 avarice	case
13	avarice	avarice	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 sin	nmod
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 atone	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present							vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	atone	past · do-support	the blind man					for the sin of avarice	tree rules

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

by paying the merchants to hit him

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 paying	mark
2	paying	pay	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 merchants	det
4	merchants	merchant	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 paying	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 hit	mark
6	hit	hit	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 paying	advcl
7	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 hit	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pay	gerund		the merchants					vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent merchant=Asset
2	hit	to-infinitive		him = he					vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme he=Co-Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

by compelling each passer-by to strike him

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 compelling	mark
2	compelling	compel	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 strike	advcl
3	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	4 passer	det
4	passer	passer	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 compelling	obj
5	-	-	PUNCT	_	2 compelling	punct
6	by	by	SCONJ	_	8 strike	mark
7	to	to	PART	_	8 strike	mark
8	strike	strike	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 strike	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	compel	gerund		each passer					vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent passer=Patient
2	strike	to-infinitive		passer					vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent he=Instrument

Option 3

by giving all his gold away

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 giving	mark
2	giving	give	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	5 gold	det:predet
4	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 gold	nmod:poss
5	gold	gold	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 giving	obj
6	away	away	ADV	_	2 giving	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	give	gerund		his gold				away property	vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gold=Theme

Option 4

by begging

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 begging	mark
2	begging	beg	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	beg speech: request	gerund							vn beg-58.2-1-1 «NP V PP.Topic»: agent=Agent

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/216-pg128-part56/e4/