Exam question 3 · Stories of Long Ago, Casabianca, part 19: the cat wins the…

On whose instruction did Casabianca remain at his post during the conflagration?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Casabianca · What happens: remain · To what, where: instruction

This is exam question 3 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	On	on	ADP	_	3 instruction	case
2	whose	whose	PRON	Poss=Yes PronType=Rel	3 instruction	nmod:poss
3	instruction	instruction	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 remain	obl
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 remain	aux
5	Casabianca	Casabianca	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 remain	nsubj
6	remain	remain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	at	at	ADP	_	9 post	case
8	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 post	nmod:poss
9	post	post	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 remain	obl
10	during	during	ADP	_	12 conflagration	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 conflagration	det
12	conflagration	conflagration	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 remain	obl
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 remain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	remain	past · do-support	Casabianca			instruction	during the conflagration	at Casabianca's post	vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on instruction=Location

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 · ✓ the right answer

On his father's instruction

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	On	on	ADP	_	5 instruction	case
2	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 father	nmod:poss
3	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 instruction	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 father	case
5	instruction	instruction	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	instruct		his father						nom instruction «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 2

On his father's instruction, which he never questioned during the fire

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	On	on	ADP	_	5 instruction	case
2	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 father	nmod:poss
3	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 instruction	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 father	case
5	instruction	instruction	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 questioned	obl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 questioned	punct
7	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 questioned	obj
8	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 questioned	nsubj
9	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	10 questioned	advmod
10	questioned	question	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
11	during	during	ADP	_	13 fire	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 fire	det
13	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 questioned	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not question speech: other	past	he			his father's instruction	during the fire		vn interrogate-37.1.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=Recipient
2	instruct		his father						nom instruction «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

Under his captain's orders

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Under	under	ADP	_	5 orders	case
2	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 captain	nmod:poss
3	captain	captain	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 orders	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 captain	case
5	orders	order	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	order		his captain						nom order «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

By his father's own order

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	6 order	case
2	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 father	nmod:poss
3	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 order	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 father	case
5	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 order	amod
6	order	order	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	order		his father						nom order «communication transitive»: poss=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/359-pg18442-part19/e3/