Exam question 4 · Peter Pan, Peter Pan and Wendy, part 26: the pirates die o…

What was the principal reason the pirates were defeated in the fighting?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: principal reason · What happens: be, defeat · To what, where: principal reason, pirates, fighting

This is exam question 4 of lesson 335 «Peter Pan, Peter Pan and Wendy, part 26: the pirates die one by one and Peter faces Hook» 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	PRON	PronType=Int	5 reason	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 reason	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 reason	det
4	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 reason	amod
5	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 pirates	det
7	pirates	pirate	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 defeated	nsubj:pass
8	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 defeated	aux:pass
9	defeated	defeat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 reason	acl:relcl
10	in	in	ADP	_	12 fighting	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 fighting	det
12	fighting	fighting	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 defeated	obl
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 reason	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past		the principal reason					tree rules
2	defeat	past · passive	the principal reason not said here	the pirates		the fighting			tree rules

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

They fought only defensively and never once attacked the boys

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 fought	nsubj
2	fought	fight	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	only	only	ADV	_	4 defensively	advmod
4	defensively	defensively	ADV	_	2 fought	advmod
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 attacked	cc
6	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	8 attacked	advmod
7	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	8 attacked	advmod
8	attacked	attack	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 fought	conj
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 boys	det
10	boys	boy	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 attacked	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fight	past	They					defensively property	vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	not attack	past	They not said here	the boys				once property	vn attack-60.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent boy=Patient

Option 2

They fought only defensively, letting Peter strike from every side at once

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 fought	nsubj
2	fought	fight	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	only	only	ADV	_	4 defensively	advmod
4	defensively	defensively	ADV	_	2 fought	advmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 letting	punct
6	letting	let	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 fought	advcl
7	Peter	Peter	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 strike	compound
8	strike	strike	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 letting	obj
9	from	from	ADP	_	11 side	case
10	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	11 side	det
11	side	side	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 letting	obl
12	at	at	ADP	_	13 once	case
13	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	2 fought	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fight	past	They					defensively property	vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	let	gerund	They not said here	Peter strike		every side			vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent strike=Theme

Option 3

Peter's boys were stronger

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Peter	Peter	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 boys	nmod:poss
2	's	's	PART	_	1 Peter	case
3	boys	boy	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 stronger	nsubj
4	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 stronger	cop
5	stronger	strong	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	Peter's boys					strong property	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

They fought only defensively

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 fought	nsubj
2	fought	fight	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	only	only	ADV	_	4 defensively	advmod
4	defensively	defensively	ADV	_	2 fought	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fight	past	They					defensively property	vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: 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/335-pg16-part26/e4/