Exam question 3 · Aesop's Fables, The Wizard, part 18: a wizard's own house…

By what means did the Crow raise the level of the water within the pitcher?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · What happens: mean, do, raise · To what, where: Crow, level · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 3 of lesson 397 «Aesop's Fables, The Wizard, part 18: a wizard's own house is robbed while he reads other people's fortunes» 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	By	by	SCONJ	_	3 means	mark
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 means	nsubj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 raise	advcl
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 means	ccomp
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Crow	det
6	Crow	crow	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
7	raise	raise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 level	det
9	level	level	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 raise	obj
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 water	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 water	det
12	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 level	nmod
13	within	within	ADP	_	15 pitcher	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 pitcher	det
15	pitcher	pitcher	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 raise	obl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 raise	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	mean	present			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	do	past	the Crow		vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent crow=Eventuality
3	raise	present	the level of the water	within the pitcher	vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent level=Theme

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

by pouring water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 pouring	mark
2	pouring	pour	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pouring	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pour	gerund		water					vn preparing-26.3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent water=Patient

Option 2

by dropping sand into it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 dropping	mark
2	dropping	drop	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 dropping	obj
4	into	into	ADP	_	5 it	case
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 dropping	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drop	gerund		sand		sand			vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent sand=Theme into it=Destination

Option 3

with a long reed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	with	with	ADP	_	4 reed	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 reed	det
3	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reed	amod
4	reed	reed	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

by dropping stones into it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 dropping	mark
2	dropping	drop	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	stones	stone	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 dropping	obj
4	into	into	ADP	_	5 it	case
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 dropping	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drop	gerund		stones		it			vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent stone=Theme into it=Destination

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/397-pg21-part18/e3/