Exam question 4 · More English Fairy Tales, The Pied Piper: a piper charms t…

Describe the outcome for the elders of the town following the departure of the children into the forest.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, town, children · What happens: describe, follow, depart · To what, where: outcome, forest, departure

This is exam question 4 of lesson 235 «More English Fairy Tales, The Pied Piper: a piper charms the rats, then leads the children away for good» 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	Describe	describe	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 outcome	det
3	outcome	outcome	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Describe	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	6 elders	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 elders	det
6	elders	elder	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Describe	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 town	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 town	det
9	town	town	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 elders	nmod
10	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	9 town	acl
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 departure	det
12	departure	departure	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 following	obj
13	of	of	ADP	_	15 children	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 children	det
15	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 departure	nmod
16	into	into	ADP	_	18 forest	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 forest	det
18	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Describe	obl
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Describe	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	describe	imperative	you not said here	the outcome	the forest	for the elders of the town	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent outcome=Theme
2	follow	gerund	the town not said here	the departure of the children			vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent departure=Theme
3	depart		the children				nom departure «act intransitive»: of=agent

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

The elders searched the forest for the children and the Piper, but never again found either one of them

The tree, 19 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 elders	det
2	elders	elder	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 searched	nsubj
3	searched	search	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 forest	det
5	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 searched	obj
6	for	for	ADP	_	8 children	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 children	det
8	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 searched	obl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 Piper	cc
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 Piper	det
11	Piper	Piper	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 children	conj
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 found	punct
13	but	but	CCONJ	_	16 found	cc
14	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	16 found	advmod
15	again	again	ADV	_	16 found	advmod
16	found	find	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 searched	parataxis
17	either	either	CCONJ	_	18 one	cc:preconj
18	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	16 found	obj
19	of	of	ADP	_	20 them	case
20	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	18 one	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	search	past	the elders	the forest				for the children and the Piper	vn search-35.2 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent forest=Location for child=Theme
2	not find	participle		one of elders			again		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Topic

Option 2

The elders never again beheld the Piper or the children, and the town fell silent forever

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 elders	det
2	elders	elder	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 beheld	nsubj:pass
3	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	5 beheld	advmod
4	again	again	ADV	_	5 beheld	advmod
5	beheld	behold	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 Piper	det
7	Piper	Piper	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 beheld	obj
8	or	or	CCONJ	_	10 children	cc
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 children	det
10	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 Piper	conj
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 fell	punct
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 fell	cc
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 town	det
14	town	town	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 fell	nsubj
15	fell	fall	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 beheld	conj
16	silent	silent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 fell	xcomp
17	forever	forever	ADV	_	15 fell	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not behold	participle · passive		the elders			again		tree rules
2	fall	past	the town					forever, silent property	vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

The elders never again beheld the Piper or the children

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 elders	det
2	elders	elder	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 beheld	nsubj:pass
3	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	5 beheld	advmod
4	again	again	ADV	_	5 beheld	advmod
5	beheld	behold	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 Piper	det
7	Piper	Piper	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 beheld	obj
8	or	or	CCONJ	_	10 children	cc
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 children	det
10	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 Piper	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not behold	participle · passive		the elders			again		tree rules

Option 4

The elders wept for the children

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 elders	det
2	elders	elder	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 wept	nsubj
3	wept	weep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	for	for	ADP	_	6 children	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 children	det
6	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 wept	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	weep	past	the elders					for the children	vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V»: 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/235-pg14241-part2/e4/