Exam question 4 · Celtic Fairy Tales, Jack and the Golden Apples, part 22: J…

Specify the action which the eldest brother required Jack to perform at the well.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, action, eldest brother · What happens: specify, brother, require, perform · To what, where: action, Jack, well

This is exam question 4 of lesson 255 «Celtic Fairy Tales, Jack and the Golden Apples, part 22: Jack sneaks past the sleeping monsters, steals the apples, and heads home» 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	Specify	specify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 action	det
3	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Specify	obj
4	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 brother	nsubj
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 brother	det
6	eldest	eld	ADJ	Degree=Sup	7 brother	amod
7	brother	brother	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 action	nmod
8	required	require	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 brother	acl
9	Jack	Jack	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 required	obj
10	to	to	PART	_	11 perform	mark
11	perform	perform	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 required	xcomp
12	at	at	ADP	_	14 well	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 well	det
14	well	well	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 perform	obl
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Specify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	specify	imperative	you not said here	the action		vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent action=Theme
2	brother		the action			tree rules
3	require	participle	the eldest brother not said here	Jack		vn order-58.3-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent jack=Recipient clause=Topic
4	perform	to-infinitive	the eldest brother not said here		the well	vn performance-26.7 «NP V»: agent=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 ordered Jack to cut the old man's throat

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 ordered	nsubj
2	ordered	order	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	Jack	Jack	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 ordered	obj
4	to	to	PART	_	5 cut	mark
5	cut	cut	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 ordered	xcomp
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 man	det
7	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 man	amod
8	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 throat	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 man	case
10	throat	throat	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 cut	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	order	past	He		Jack				vn order-58.3-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent jack=Recipient clause=Topic
2	cut not said to happen	to-infinitive	He not said here	the old man's throat					vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset throat=Product

Option 2

He required Jack to sever the old man's head and carry it home

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 required	nsubj
2	required	require	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	Jack	Jack	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 required	obj
4	to	to	PART	_	5 sever	mark
5	sever	sever	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 required	xcomp
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 man	det
7	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 man	amod
8	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 head	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 man	case
10	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 sever	obj
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 carry	cc
12	carry	carry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 sever	conj
13	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 carry	obj
14	home	home	ADV	_	12 carry	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	require	past	He	Jack		vn order-58.3-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent jack=Recipient clause=Topic
2	sever	to-infinitive	He not said here	the old man's head		vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Theme
3	carry	infinitive	He not said here	head	home property	vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

Option 3

He required Jack to sever the old man's head and throw it into the well

The tree, 16 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 required	nsubj
2	required	require	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	Jack	Jack	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 required	obj
4	to	to	PART	_	5 sever	mark
5	sever	sever	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 required	xcomp
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 man	det
7	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 man	amod
8	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 head	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 man	case
10	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 sever	obj
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 throw	cc
12	throw	throw	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 sever	conj
13	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 throw	obj
14	into	into	ADP	_	16 well	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 well	det
16	well	well	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 throw	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	require	past	He	Jack		vn order-58.3-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent jack=Recipient clause=Topic
2	sever	to-infinitive	He not said here	the old man's head		vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Theme
3	throw	infinitive	He not said here	head	into the well result	vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Causer it=Theme into well=Result

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

He required Jack to sever the old man's head

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 required	nsubj
2	required	require	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	Jack	Jack	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 required	obj
4	to	to	PART	_	5 sever	mark
5	sever	sever	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 required	xcomp
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 man	det
7	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 man	amod
8	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 head	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 man	case
10	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 sever	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	require	past	He	Jack					vn order-58.3-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent jack=Recipient clause=Topic
2	sever	to-infinitive	He not said here	the old man's head					vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/255-pg14241-part22/e4/