Exam question 3 · Arabian Nights, The Princess Parizade, part 68: the three…

What ultimately prevented the intendant from disclosing the secret of the children's origin?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · What happens: prevent, disclose · To what, where: intendant, secret

This is exam question 3 of lesson 228 «Arabian Nights, The Princess Parizade, part 68: the three foundlings grow up, and a pilgrim names three wonders the princess must have» 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 prevented	obj
2	ultimately	ultimately	ADV	_	3 prevented	advmod
3	prevented	prevent	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 intendant	det
5	intendant	intendant	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 prevented	obj
6	from	from	SCONJ	_	7 disclosing	mark
7	disclosing	disclose	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 prevented	advcl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 secret	det
9	secret	secret	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 disclosing	obj
10	of	of	ADP	_	14 origin	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 children	det
12	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 origin	nmod:poss
13	's	's	PART	_	12 children	case
14	origin	origin	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 secret	nmod
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 prevented	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prevent	past		the intendant				ultimately property	tree rules
2	disclose	gerund		the secret of the children's origin					vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot secret=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 · ← Mova's choice

His sudden death, which overtook him before he could do so, after years of keeping the secret from everyone

The tree, 19 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	His	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 death	nmod:poss
2	sudden	sudden	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 death	amod
3	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 overtook	nsubj
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 overtook	punct
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 overtook	nsubj
6	overtook	overtake	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 overtook	obj
8	before	before	SCONJ	_	11 do	mark
9	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 do	nsubj
10	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 do	aux
11	do	do	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 overtook	advcl
12	so	so	ADV	_	11 do	advmod
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 years	punct
14	after	after	ADP	_	15 years	case
15	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 do	obl
16	of	of	SCONJ	_	17 keeping	mark
17	keeping	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	15 years	acl
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 secret	det
19	secret	secret	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 keeping	obj
20	from	from	ADP	_	21 everyone	case
21	everyone	everyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Tot	17 keeping	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	roles by
1	overtake	past	His sudden death	him = he			tree rules
2	do	could	death			year	vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	keep	gerund	years not said here	the secret	everyone		vn forbid-64.4 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Causer secret=Beneficiary from everyone=Eventuality
4	die		His = he				nom death «event intransitive»: poss=agent

Option 2

His fear that the children would be taken away

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	His	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 fear	nmod:poss
2	fear	fear	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 taken	nsubj
3	that	that	ADP	_	5 children	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 children	det
5	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 fear	nmod
6	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 taken	aux
7	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	8 taken	aux:pass
8	taken	take	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
9	away	away	ADV	_	8 taken	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	take away	would · passive		His fear that the children				away property	vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
2	fear		His = he					that the children	nom fear «feeling transitive»: poss=agent that=obl

Option 3

His fear of the sisters' spies in the household

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	His	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 fear	nmod:poss
2	fear	fear	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	7 spies	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 sisters	det
5	sisters	sister	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 spies	nmod:poss
6	'	's	PART	_	5 sisters	case
7	spies	spy	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 fear	nmod
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 household	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 household	det
10	household	household	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 spies	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fear		His = he	the sisters's spies in the household					nom fear «feeling transitive»: poss=agent of=patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

His sudden death, which overtook him before he could do so

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	His	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 death	nmod:poss
2	sudden	sudden	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 death	amod
3	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 overtook	nsubj
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 overtook	punct
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 overtook	nsubj
6	overtook	overtake	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 overtook	obj
8	before	before	SCONJ	_	11 do	mark
9	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 do	nsubj
10	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 do	aux
11	do	do	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 overtook	advcl
12	so	so	ADV	_	11 do	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	overtake	past	His sudden death	him = he	tree rules
2	do	could	death		vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	die		His = he		nom death «event intransitive»: poss=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/228-pg128-part68/e3/