Exam question 4 · Celtic Fairy Tales, The Little Bull-Calf, part 27: the cal…

What condition did the princess state, with reference to her own situation, before the boy untied her?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: condition, boy · What happens: do, untie · To what, where: princess state, condition

This is exam question 4 of lesson 260 «Celtic Fairy Tales, The Little Bull-Calf, part 27: the calf dies, the boy finds a princess» 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	What	what	DET	PronType=Int	2 condition	det
2	condition	condition	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	nsubj
3	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 state	det
5	princess	princess	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 state	compound
6	state	state	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	obj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 reference	punct
8	with	with	ADP	_	9 reference	case
9	reference	reference	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	obl
10	to	to	ADP	_	13 situation	case
11	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 situation	nmod:poss
12	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 situation	amod
13	situation	situation	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 reference	nmod
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 untied	punct
15	before	before	SCONJ	_	18 untied	mark
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 boy	det
17	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 untied	nsubj
18	untied	untie	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 did	conj
19	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	18 untied	obj
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	past	what condition	the princess state				with reference to condition's own situation	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent state=Eventuality
2	untie	past	the boy	condition					vn disassemble-23.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Patient

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

Her hour had come to be slain

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 hour	nmod:poss
2	hour	hour	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 come	nsubj
3	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 come	aux
4	come	come	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	7 slain	mark
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 slain	aux:pass
7	slain	slay	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 come	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	come	past · perfect	Her hour						vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	slay	to-infinitive · passive	Her hour not said here						vn murder-42.1 «NP V NP»

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Her time had come to be destroyed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 time	nmod:poss
2	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 come	nsubj
3	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 come	aux
4	come	come	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	7 destroyed	mark
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 destroyed	aux:pass
7	destroyed	destroy	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 come	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	come	past · perfect	Her time						tree rules
2	destroy	to-infinitive · passive	Her time not said here						vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

She was tied up

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 tied	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 tied	aux:pass
3	tied	tie	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	up	up	ADP	_	3 tied	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tie up	past · passive		She					vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 4

Her time had come, and she was to be eaten by the dragon at dusk

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 time	nmod:poss
2	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 come	nsubj
3	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 come	aux
4	come	come	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 eaten	punct
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 eaten	cc
7	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 eaten	nsubj
8	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 eaten	aux:pass
9	to	to	PART	_	11 eaten	mark
10	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	11 eaten	aux:pass
11	eaten	eat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 come	conj
12	by	by	ADP	_	14 dragon	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 dragon	det
14	dragon	dragon	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 eaten	obl
15	at	at	ADP	_	16 dusk	case
16	dusk	dusk	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 dragon	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	come	past · perfect	Her time						vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	eat	past · passive	the dragon at dusk	she					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient

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/260-pg14241-part27/e4/