Exam question 3 · Book of Tales, The Inchcape Rock: Ralph the Rover cuts the…

What was the principal cause of Ralph's ship being wrecked on the rock?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: be, wreck · To what, where: principal cause, ship, rock

This is exam question 3 of lesson 357 «Book of Tales, The Inchcape Rock: Ralph the Rover cuts the abbot's buoy bell and his own ship is wrecked on the rock» 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 cause	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 cause	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 cause	det
4	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 cause	amod
5	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	9 ship	case
7	Ralph	Ralph	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 ship	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 Ralph	case
9	ship	ship	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 cause	nmod
10	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	11 wrecked	aux:pass
11	wrecked	wreck	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 ship	acl
12	on	on	ADP	_	14 rock	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 rock	det
14	rock	rock	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 wrecked	obl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 cause	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past		the principal cause				of Ralph's ship	tree rules
2	wreck	gerund · passive		Ralph's ship not said here		the rock			vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»

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 sailed into a storm with no lights aboard.

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 sailed	nsubj
2	sailed	sail	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	into	into	ADP	_	5 storm	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 storm	det
5	storm	storm	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 sailed	obl
6	with	with	ADP	_	8 lights	case
7	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	8 lights	det
8	lights	light	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 sailed	obl
9	aboard	aboard	ADV	_	2 sailed	advmod
10	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 sailed	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sail	past	He			a storm		with no lights; aboard property	vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent into storm=Trajectory

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

A storm drove his ship onto the sandbar at night.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 storm	det
2	storm	storm	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 drove	nsubj
3	drove	drive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 ship	nmod:poss
5	ship	ship	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 drove	obj
6	onto	onto	ADP	_	8 sandbar	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 sandbar	det
8	sandbar	sandbar	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 drove	obl
9	at	at	ADP	_	10 night	case
10	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 drove	obl
11	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 drove	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drive	past	a storm	storm's ship		the sandbar	night		vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent ship=Theme onto sandbar=Trajectory

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

He struck the rock in fog, having no bell to warn him.

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 struck	nsubj
2	struck	strike	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 rock	det
4	rock	rock	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 struck	obj
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 fog	case
6	fog	fog	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 struck	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 having	punct
8	having	have	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 struck	advcl
9	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	10 bell	det
10	bell	bell	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 having	obj
11	to	to	PART	_	12 warn	mark
12	warn	warn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 having	advcl
13	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 warn	obj
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 struck	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	roles by
1	strike	past	He	the rock		fog	vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rock=Patient
2	have	gerund	He not said here	no bell			vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bell=Patient
3	warn speech: warn	to-infinitive	He not said here		him = he		vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient

Option 4

He struck the rock in dense fog, having no bell to warn him, after cutting the buoy loose.

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	2 struck	nsubj
2	struck	strike	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 rock	det
4	rock	rock	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 struck	obj
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 fog	case
6	dense	dense	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 fog	amod
7	fog	fog	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 struck	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 having	punct
9	having	have	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 struck	advcl
10	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	11 bell	det
11	bell	bell	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 having	obj
12	to	to	PART	_	13 warn	mark
13	warn	warn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 having	advcl
14	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 warn	obj
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 cutting	punct
16	after	after	SCONJ	_	17 cutting	mark
17	cutting	cut	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	13 warn	advcl
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 buoy	det
19	buoy	buoy	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 cutting	obj
20	loose	loose	ADV	_	17 cutting	advmod
21	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 struck	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	other	roles by
1	strike	past	He	the rock		dense fog		vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rock=Patient
2	have	gerund	He not said here	no bell				vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bell=Patient
3	warn speech: warn	to-infinitive	He not said here		him = he			vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent he=Recipient
4	cut	gerund	He not said here	the buoy			loose property	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset buoy=Product

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/357-pg18442-part17/e3/