Exam question 4 · Arabian Nights, Ali Cogia, Merchant of Bagdad, part 1: Ali…

Which of the following most accurately describes the route by which Ali Cogia travelled after reaching Mecca and departed from the holy city?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Ali · What happens: follow, describe, travel, reach, depart · To what, where: route, Mecca, holy city

This is exam question 4 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 route	det
9	route	route	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 describes	obj
10	by	by	ADP	_	11 which	case
11	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	14 travelled	obl
12	Ali	Ali	PROPN	Number=Sing	14 travelled	nsubj
13	Cogia	Cogia	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 Ali	flat
14	travelled	travel	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 route	acl:relcl
15	after	after	SCONJ	_	16 reaching	mark
16	reaching	reach	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	14 travelled	advcl
17	Mecca	Mecca	PROPN	Number=Sing	16 reaching	obj
18	and	and	CCONJ	_	19 departed	cc
19	departed	depart	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	14 travelled	conj
20	from	from	ADP	_	23 city	case
21	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	23 city	det
22	holy	holy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	23 city	amod
23	city	city	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 departed	obl
24	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 following	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund					vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	describe	present		the route		accurately property	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent route=Theme
3	travel	past	Ali			by the route	vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by which=Trajectory
4	reach	gerund	Ali not said here	Mecca			vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent mecca=Theme
5	depart	participle	Ali not said here		the holy city		vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme from city=Initial_Location

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

He went to Cairo, then Mossoul

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 went	nsubj
2	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	ADP	_	4 Cairo	case
4	Cairo	Cairo	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 went	obl
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 Mossoul	punct
6	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	7 Mossoul	advmod
7	Mossoul	Mossoul	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 Cairo	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	past	He			Cairo and Mossoul			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to cairo=Initial_Location

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

He went to Cairo, then Damascus, then Mossoul

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 went	nsubj
2	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	ADP	_	4 Cairo	case
4	Cairo	Cairo	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 went	obl
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 Damascus	punct
6	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	7 Damascus	advmod
7	Damascus	Damascus	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 Cairo	conj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 Mossoul	punct
9	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	10 Mossoul	advmod
10	Mossoul	Mossoul	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 went	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	past	He	Mossoul		Cairo and Damascus			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to cairo=Initial_Location

Option 3

He went to Damascus, then Cairo, then Bagdad

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 went	nsubj
2	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	ADP	_	4 Damascus	case
4	Damascus	Damascus	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 went	obl
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 Cairo	punct
6	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	7 Cairo	advmod
7	Cairo	Cairo	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 went	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 Bagdad	punct
9	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	10 Bagdad	advmod
10	Bagdad	Bagdad	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 went	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	past	He	Cairo		Damascus		Bagdad obl	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to damascus=Initial_Location

Option 4

He travelled to Cairo, then Damascus, then Bagdad

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 travelled	nsubj
2	travelled	travel	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	ADP	_	4 Cairo	case
4	Cairo	Cairo	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 travelled	obl
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 Damascus	punct
6	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	7 Damascus	advmod
7	Damascus	Damascus	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 Cairo	conj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 Bagdad	punct
9	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	10 Bagdad	advmod
10	Bagdad	Bagdad	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 travelled	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	travel	past	He	Bagdad	Cairo and Damascus				vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to cairo=Destination

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/e4/