Exam question 4 · English Fairy Tales, The Little Bull-Calf: the boy kills t…
By what means did the rival claimants attempt to substantiate their claims before the king?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: rival claimants, claimants · What happens: mean, do, attempt, substantiate, claim · To what, where: claims
This is exam question 4 of lesson 261 «English Fairy Tales, The Little Bull-Calf: the boy kills the dragon and wins the 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 | By | by | ADP | _ | 2 what | case |
| 2 | what | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 4 did | obj |
| 3 | means | mean | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 2 what | acl:relcl |
| 4 | did | do | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 claimants | det |
| 6 | rival | rival | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 claimants | amod |
| 7 | claimants | claimant | NOUN | Number=Plur | 8 attempt | nsubj |
| 8 | attempt | attempt | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 4 did | ccomp |
| 9 | to | to | PART | _ | 10 substantiate | mark |
| 10 | substantiate | substantiate | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 8 attempt | xcomp |
| 11 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 12 claims | nmod:poss |
| 12 | claims | claim | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 substantiate | obj |
| 13 | before | before | ADP | _ | 15 king | case |
| 14 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 king | det |
| 15 | king | king | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 substantiate | obl |
| 16 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 4 did | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | mean | present | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent | ||||||
| 2 | do | past | tree rules | ||||||
| 3 | attempt | present | the rival claimants | vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality | |||||
| 4 | substantiate not said to happen | to-infinitive | the rival claimants not said here | claimants's claims | before the king | tree rules | |||
| 5 | claim | claimants = claimant | nom claim «communication 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
by presenting counterfeit dragon tongues and forged letters of proof
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | by | by | SCONJ | _ | 2 presenting | mark |
| 2 | presenting | present | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 7 forged | advcl |
| 3 | counterfeit | counterfeit | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 dragon | compound |
| 4 | dragon | dragon | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 tongues | compound |
| 5 | tongues | tongue | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 presenting | obj |
| 6 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 7 forged | cc |
| 7 | forged | forge | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 8 | letters | letter | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 forged | obj |
| 9 | of | of | ADP | _ | 10 proof | case |
| 10 | proof | proof | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 letters | nmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | present | gerund | dragon tongues | vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tongue=Theme | |||||
| 2 | forge | past | letters of proof | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent letter=Product | |||||
| 3 | letter | proof | nom letter «communication transitive»: of=patient |
Option 2 · ✓ the right answer
by presenting counterfeit dragon tongues
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | by | by | SCONJ | _ | 2 presenting | mark |
| 2 | presenting | present | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 3 | counterfeit | counterfeit | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 dragon | compound |
| 4 | dragon | dragon | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 tongues | compound |
| 5 | tongues | tongue | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 presenting | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | present | gerund | dragon tongues | vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tongue=Theme |
Option 3
by bringing forged dragon ears
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | by | by | SCONJ | _ | 2 bringing | mark |
| 2 | bringing | bring | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 3 | forged | forge | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 5 ears | amod |
| 4 | dragon | dragon | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 ears | compound |
| 5 | ears | ear | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 bringing | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | bring | gerund | forged dragon ears | vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent ear=Theme | |||||
| 2 | forge | participle | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
Option 4
by showing forged dragon scales
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | by | by | SCONJ | _ | 2 showing | mark |
| 2 | showing | show | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | root | root |
| 3 | forged | forge | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 5 scales | amod |
| 4 | dragon | dragon | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 scales | compound |
| 5 | scales | scale | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 showing | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | show | gerund | forged dragon scales | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent scale=Recipient | |||||
| 2 | forge | participle | vn build-26.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |
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/261-pg14241-part28/e4/