Exam question 4 · English Fairy Tales, Princess of Canterbury: Jack wins the…

Explain why the princess concluded that Jack must not be beheaded, as stated in the passage.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, princess · What happens: explain, conclude, not behead, state · To what, where: Jack, passage

This is exam question 4 of lesson 266 «English Fairy Tales, Princess of Canterbury: Jack wins the princess with an egg, a stick, a nut and fish» 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	Explain	explain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	5 concluded	advmod
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 princess	det
4	princess	princess	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 concluded	nsubj
5	concluded	conclude	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 Explain	advcl
6	that	that	SCONJ	_	11 beheaded	mark
7	Jack	Jack	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 beheaded	nsubj:pass
8	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 beheaded	aux
9	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	11 beheaded	advmod
10	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	11 beheaded	aux:pass
11	beheaded	behead	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 concluded	ccomp
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 stated	punct
13	as	as	SCONJ	_	14 stated	mark
14	stated	state	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 beheaded	conj
15	in	in	ADP	_	17 passage	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 passage	det
17	passage	passage	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 stated	obl
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Explain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	explain speech: assert	imperative	you not said here			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	conclude	past	the princess			vn deduce-97.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
3	not behead	must · passive		Jack		vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
4	state speech: other	participle			the passage	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: 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

He had answered her three questions

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	3 answered	nsubj
2	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 answered	aux
3	answered	answer	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 answered	obj
5	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 questions	nummod
6	questions	question	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 answered	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	answer speech: assert	past · perfect	He	three questions	her = she				vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent she=Theme question=Eventuality

Option 2

He had been fishing in the hall all night, so the king could not behead him for sleeping

The tree, 18 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	4 fishing	nsubj
2	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 fishing	aux
3	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	4 fishing	cop
4	fishing	fishing	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 hall	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 hall	det
7	hall	hall	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 fishing	nmod
8	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	9 night	det
9	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 hall	nmod:unmarked
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 behead	punct
11	so	so	ADV	_	16 behead	advmod
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 king	det
13	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 behead	nsubj
14	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	16 behead	aux
15	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	16 behead	advmod
16	behead	behead	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 fishing	conj
17	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 behead	obj
18	for	for	ADP	_	19 sleeping	case
19	sleeping	sleeping	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 behead	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past · perfect	He	fishing		the hall all night			tree rules
2	not behead	could	the king	him = he				for sleeping	vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

He had been fishing in the hall all night

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	4 fishing	nsubj
2	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 fishing	aux
3	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	4 fishing	cop
4	fishing	fishing	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 hall	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 hall	det
7	hall	hall	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 fishing	nmod
8	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	9 night	det
9	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 fishing	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past · perfect	He	fishing		the hall	night		tree rules

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

He had been fishing in the hall all night and had caught several fish to show the king

The tree, 18 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	4 fishing	nsubj
2	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 fishing	aux
3	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	4 fishing	cop
4	fishing	fishing	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 hall	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 hall	det
7	hall	hall	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 fishing	nmod
8	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	4 fishing	appos
9	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 all	obl:unmarked
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 caught	cc
11	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 caught	aux
12	caught	catch	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	8 all	conj
13	several	several	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 fish	amod
14	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 caught	obj
15	to	to	PART	_	16 show	mark
16	show	show	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 caught	advcl
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 king	det
18	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 show	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	roles by
1	is a	past · perfect	He	fishing		the hall	tree rules
2	catch	past · perfect	He not said here	several fish			vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fish=Theme
3	show	to-infinitive	He not said here		the king		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent king=Recipient

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/266-pg14241-part33/e4/