Exam question 2 · Persian Tales, The Sultan Kosrouschah, part 67: three sist…

By what means did the Sultan resolve to act upon overhearing the sisters?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: Sultan · What happens: mean, resolve, act, overhear · To what, where: sisters

This is exam question 2 of lesson 227 «Persian Tales, The Sultan Kosrouschah, part 67: three sisters' wishes come true, and the cradles float away» 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	7 resolve	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	7 resolve	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Sultan	det
6	Sultan	Sultan	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 resolve	nsubj
7	resolve	resolve	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	to	to	PART	_	9 act	mark
9	act	act	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 resolve	xcomp
10	upon	upon	SCONJ	_	11 overhearing	mark
11	overhearing	overhear	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 act	advcl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 sisters	det
13	sisters	sister	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 overhearing	obj
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 resolve	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	mean	present			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	resolve	past · do-support	the Sultan		tree rules
3	act	to-infinitive	the Sultan not said here		vn act-114-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	overhear	gerund	the Sultan not said here	the sisters	vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer sister=Stimulus

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 punished them for their words

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 punished	nsubj
2	punished	punish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 punished	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	6 words	case
5	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 words	nmod:poss
6	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 punished	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	punish	past	He	them = they				for their words	vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent they=Patient for word=Theme
2	word		their = they						nom word «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

He gratified their stated desires

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 gratified	nsubj
2	gratified	gratify	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 desires	nmod:poss
4	stated	state	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 desires	amod
5	desires	desire	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 gratified	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	gratify	past	He	their stated desires	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus desire=Experiencer
2	state speech: other	participle			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
3	desire		their = they		nom desire «feeling transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

He sent them away

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 sent	nsubj
2	sent	send	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 sent	obj
4	away	away	ADV	_	2 sent	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	send away	past	He	them = they				away property	vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme

Option 4

He refused them

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 refused	nsubj
2	refused	refuse	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 refused	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	refuse	past	He	them = they					vn reject-77.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=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/227-pg128-part67/e2/