Exam question 4 · Scottish Fairy Tales, The Golden Ball, My Own Self and the…

Describe the reason the eldest daughter of the Norroway tale was instructed to wait at the back-door.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, reason · What happens: describe, instruct, wait · To what, where: reason, eldest daughter, back door

This is exam question 4 of lesson 237 «Scottish Fairy Tales, The Golden Ball, My Own Self and the start of The Black Bull of Norroway: the lad beats the bogles, the lass is saved, a fairy child burns her foot, and a girl sets out for her fortune» 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 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Describe	obj
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 daughter	det
5	eldest	eld	ADJ	Degree=Sup	6 daughter	amod
6	daughter	daughter	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 instructed	nsubj:pass
7	of	of	ADP	_	10 tale	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 tale	det
9	Norroway	Norroway	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 tale	compound
10	tale	tale	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 daughter	nmod
11	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 instructed	aux:pass
12	instructed	instruct	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 reason	acl:relcl
13	to	to	PART	_	14 wait	mark
14	wait	wait	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 instructed	xcomp
15	at	at	ADP	_	19 door	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 door	det
17	back	back	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 door	compound
18	-	-	PUNCT	_	17 back	punct
19	door	door	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 wait	obl
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Describe	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	describe	imperative	you not said here	the reason		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	instruct speech: other	past · passive	the reason not said here	the eldest daughter of the Norroway tale		vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP how S_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic
3	wait	to-infinitive	the reason not said here		the back door	vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at door=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 · ✓ the right answer

she was to look out and observe what she could see

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 look	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 look	cop
3	to	to	PART	_	4 look	mark
4	look	look	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	out	out	ADP	_	4 look	compound:prt
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 observe	cc
7	observe	observe	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 look	conj
8	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	11 see	obj
9	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 see	nsubj
10	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 see	aux
11	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 observe	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	past	she	look property	tree rules
2	observe	infinitive	she not said here		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	see	could	she		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus

Option 2

so she could guard the house from thieves

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	so	so	ADV	_	4 guard	advmod
2	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 guard	nsubj
3	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 guard	aux
4	guard	guard	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 house	det
6	house	house	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 guard	obj
7	from	from	ADP	_	8 thieves	case
8	thieves	thief	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 guard	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	guard	could	she	the house				from thieves	vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent house=Beneficiary from thief=Theme

Option 3

she was to look out and observe what she could see and report it to her mother each evening

The tree, 19 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 look	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 look	cop
3	to	to	PART	_	4 look	mark
4	look	look	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	out	out	ADP	_	4 look	compound:prt
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 observe	cc
7	observe	observe	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 look	conj
8	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	11 see	obj
9	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 see	nsubj
10	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 see	aux
11	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 observe	ccomp
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 report	cc
13	report	report	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 look	conj
14	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 report	obj
15	to	to	ADP	_	17 mother	case
16	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 mother	nmod:poss
17	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 report	obl
18	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	19 evening	det
19	evening	evening	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 report	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	she				look property	tree rules
2	observe	infinitive	she not said here					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	see	could	she					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus
4	report	infinitive	she not said here	it	her mother	evening		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Topic to mother=Recipient

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

she was to look out and observe what she could see along the road until the coach came

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 look	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 look	cop
3	to	to	PART	_	4 look	mark
4	look	look	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	out	out	ADP	_	4 look	compound:prt
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 observe	cc
7	observe	observe	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 look	conj
8	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	11 see	obj
9	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 see	nsubj
10	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 see	aux
11	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 observe	ccomp
12	along	along	ADP	_	14 road	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 road	det
14	road	road	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 see	obl
15	until	until	SCONJ	_	18 came	mark
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 coach	det
17	coach	coach	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 came	nsubj
18	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 see	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	past	she	look property	tree rules
2	observe	infinitive	she not said here		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	see	could	she	along the road	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer what=Stimulus
4	come	past	the coach		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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.

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