Exam question 2 · Arabian Nights, Ali Cogia, Merchant of Bagdad, part 1: Ali…

Which of the following most accurately describes the decision the merchant reached upon discovering the gold within the vase?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: merchant · What happens: follow, describe, reach, discover · To what, where: decision, gold

This is exam question 2 of lesson 219 «Arabian Nights, Ali Cogia, Merchant of Bagdad, part 1: Ali hides gold in a vase of olives, and his friend steals it» 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	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 following	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	4 following	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 following	det
4	following	follow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	6 accurately	advmod
6	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	7 describes	advmod
7	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 following	advcl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 decision	det
9	decision	decision	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 reached	obj
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 merchant	det
11	merchant	merchant	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 reached	nsubj
12	reached	reach	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 describes	ccomp
13	upon	upon	SCONJ	_	14 discovering	mark
14	discovering	discover	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	12 reached	advcl
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 gold	det
16	gold	gold	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 discovering	obj
17	within	within	ADP	_	19 vase	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 vase	det
19	vase	vase	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 discovering	obl
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 following	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	describe	present			accurately property	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
3	reach	past	the merchant	the decision		vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent decision=Theme
4	discover	gerund	the merchant not said here	the gold	within the vase	vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gold=Topic

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 kept the gold

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 kept	nsubj
2	kept	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 gold	det
4	gold	gold	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 kept	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	past	He	the gold					vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gold=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

He concealed the gold and replaced the olives

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 concealed	nsubj
2	concealed	conceal	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 gold	det
4	gold	gold	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 concealed	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 replaced	cc
6	replaced	replace	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 concealed	conj
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 olives	det
8	olives	olive	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 replaced	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	conceal	past	He	the gold					vn concealment-16 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gold=Patient
2	replace	past	He not said here	the olives					vn substitute-13.6.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme olive=Co-Theme

Option 3

He hid the gold and changed olives

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 hid	nsubj
2	hid	hide	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 gold	det
4	gold	gold	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 hid	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 changed	cc
6	changed	change	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 hid	conj
7	olives	olive	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 changed	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hide	past	He	the gold					vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gold=Patient
2	change	past	He not said here	olives					vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent olive=Patient

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

He hid the gold and bought new olives

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 hid	nsubj
2	hid	hide	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 gold	det
4	gold	gold	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 hid	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 bought	cc
6	bought	buy	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 hid	conj
7	new	new	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 olives	amod
8	olives	olive	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 bought	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hide	past	He	the gold					vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gold=Patient
2	buy	past	He not said here	new olives					vn accept-77.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent olive=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/219-pg128-part59/e2/