Exam question 2 · Stories of Long Ago, Casabianca, part 19: the cat wins the…

What was the principal consequence of the cat's destruction of the vermin?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: cat · What happens: be, destroy · To what, where: principal consequence, vermin

This is exam question 2 of lesson 359 «Stories of Long Ago, Casabianca, part 19: the cat wins the king's gold, and a boy waits on a burning ship» 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 consequence	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 consequence	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 consequence	det
4	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 consequence	amod
5	consequence	consequence	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	10 destruction	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 cat	det
8	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 destruction	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 cat	case
10	destruction	destruction	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 consequence	nmod
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 vermin	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 vermin	det
13	vermin	vermin	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 destruction	nmod
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 consequence	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past		the principal consequence				of the cat's destruction of the vermin	tree rules
2	destroy		the cat	the vermin					nom destruction «act transitive»: poss=agent of=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 · ← Mova's choice

The king purchased the whole cargo and gave a great reward to Dick

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 king	det
2	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 purchased	nsubj
3	purchased	purchase	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 cargo	det
5	whole	whole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 cargo	amod
6	cargo	cargo	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 purchased	obj
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 gave	cc
8	gave	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 purchased	conj
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 reward	det
10	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 reward	amod
11	reward	reward	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 gave	obj
12	to	to	ADP	_	13 Dick	case
13	Dick	Dick	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 gave	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	purchase	past	the king	the whole cargo					vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cargo=Theme
2	give	past	the king not said here	a great reward	Dick				vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent reward=Theme to dick=Recipient

Option 2

The merchant lost the whole cargo

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 merchant	det
2	merchant	merchant	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lost	nsubj
3	lost	lose	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 cargo	det
5	whole	whole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 cargo	amod
6	cargo	cargo	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lost	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lose	past	the merchant	the whole cargo					vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cargo=Eventuality

Option 3

The king purchased the whole cargo of the ship, every crate and barrel of it

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 king	det
2	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 purchased	nsubj
3	purchased	purchase	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 cargo	det
5	whole	whole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 cargo	amod
6	cargo	cargo	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 purchased	obj
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 ship	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 ship	det
9	ship	ship	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 cargo	nmod
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 crate	punct
11	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	12 crate	det
12	crate	crate	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 purchased	parataxis
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 barrel	cc
14	barrel	barrel	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 crate	conj
15	of	of	ADP	_	16 it	case
16	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 barrel	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	purchase	past	the king	the whole cargo of the ship					vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cargo=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The king purchased the whole cargo

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 king	det
2	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 purchased	nsubj
3	purchased	purchase	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 cargo	det
5	whole	whole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 cargo	amod
6	cargo	cargo	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 purchased	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	purchase	past	the king	the whole cargo					vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cargo=Theme

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/359-pg18442-part19/e2/