Exam question 3 · English Fairy Tales, Tom Hickathrift: Tom beats the footba…

By what means did Tom gain possession of the giant's treasure?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Tom, giant · What happens: mean, gain, possess, treasure · To what, where: possession, treasure

This is exam question 3 of lesson 242 «English Fairy Tales, Tom Hickathrift: Tom beats the football crowd, four robbers and a tinker, then kills a giant» 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	6 gain	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	6 gain	aux
5	Tom	Tom	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 gain	nsubj
6	gain	gain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	possession	possession	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 gain	obj
8	of	of	ADP	_	12 treasure	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 giant	det
10	giant	giant	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 treasure	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 giant	case
12	treasure	treasure	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 possession	nmod
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 gain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	mean	present			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	gain	past · do-support	Tom	possession of the giant's treasure	vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent possession=Theme
3	possess			the giant's treasure	nom possession «act transitive»: of=patient
4	treasure		the giant		nom treasure «possession transitive»: poss=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 · ← Mova's choice

He slew the giant with his club and then searched the cave for loot

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 slew	nsubj
2	slew	slay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 giant	det
4	giant	giant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 slew	obj
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 club	case
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 club	nmod:poss
7	club	club	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 slew	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 searched	cc
9	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	10 searched	advmod
10	searched	search	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 slew	conj
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 cave	det
12	cave	cave	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 searched	obj
13	for	for	ADP	_	14 loot	case
14	loot	loot	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 searched	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	slay	past	He	the giant				with his club	vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent giant=Patient with club=Instrument
2	search	past	He not said here	the cave			then	for loot	vn search-35.2 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent cave=Location for loot=Theme

Option 2

He chased the giant out of the cave

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 chased	nsubj
2	chased	chase	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 giant	det
4	giant	giant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 chased	obj
5	out	out	ADP	_	8 cave	case
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 cave	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 cave	det
8	cave	cave	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 chased	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	chase	past	He	the giant		the cave			vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent giant=Theme out cave=Trajectory

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

He slew the giant and entered the cave

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 slew	nsubj
2	slew	slay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 giant	det
4	giant	giant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 slew	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 entered	cc
6	entered	enter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 slew	conj
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 cave	det
8	cave	cave	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 entered	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	slay	past	He	the giant					vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent giant=Patient
2	enter	past	He not said here	the cave					vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme cave=Destination

Option 4

He slew the giant in battle and then carried the gold out of the cave

The tree, 15 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 slew	nsubj
2	slew	slay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 giant	det
4	giant	giant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 slew	obj
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 battle	case
6	battle	battle	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 slew	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 carried	cc
8	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	9 carried	advmod
9	carried	carry	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 slew	conj
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 gold	det
11	gold	gold	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 carried	obj
12	out	out	ADP	_	15 cave	case
13	of	of	ADP	_	15 cave	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 cave	det
15	cave	cave	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 carried	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	slay	past	He	the giant		battle			vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent giant=Patient
2	carry	past	He not said here	the gold		the cave	then		vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.initial_location»: agent=Agent gold=Theme out cave=Initial_Location

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/242-pg14241-part9/e3/