Exam question 1 · English Fairy Tales, A Pottle o' Brains, part 20: the Hoby…

In what manner does the fool's mother die?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: mother · What happens: do, die · To what, where: manner

This is exam question 1 of lesson 253 «English Fairy Tales, A Pottle o' Brains, part 20: the Hobyahs are beaten, the fool's mother dies, and a lass offers to help him» 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	In	in	ADP	_	3 manner	case
2	what	what	DET	PronType=Int	3 manner	det
3	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 does	obl
4	does	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 fool	det
6	fool	fool	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 mother	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 fool	case
8	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 die	nsubj
9	die	die	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 does	ccomp
10	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 does	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	present				what manner			tree rules
2	die	infinitive	the fool's mother						vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

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

She dies while son is at work

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	2 dies	nsubj
2	dies	die	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	while	while	SCONJ	_	7 work	mark
4	son	son	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 work	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 work	cop
6	at	at	ADP	_	7 work	case
7	work	work	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 dies	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	die	present	She						vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute
2	is	present	son			work			tree rules

Option 2

She simply falls asleep

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	3 falls	nsubj
2	simply	simply	ADV	_	3 falls	advmod
3	falls	fall	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	asleep	asleep	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 falls	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fall	present	She					asleep, simply property	vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

She dies while her son is away from home

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	2 dies	nsubj
2	dies	die	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	while	while	SCONJ	_	7 away	mark
4	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 son	nmod:poss
5	son	son	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 away	nsubj
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 away	cop
7	away	away	ADV	_	2 dies	advcl
8	from	from	ADP	_	9 home	case
9	home	home	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 away	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	die	present	She						vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute
2	is	present	her son			home		away property	tree rules

Option 4

She dies in the field alone

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	2 dies	nsubj
2	dies	die	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 field	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 field	det
5	field	field	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 dies	obl
6	alone	alone	ADV	_	2 dies	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	die	present	She					in the field; alone property	vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient in field=Attribute

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/253-pg14241-part20/e1/