Exam question 4 · Russian Folk-Tales, The Dead Witch: demons steal the witch…

What did the women conclude had become of the corpse once the demon had fled?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: women, corpse · What happens: conclude, become, flee · To what, where: corpse, demon

This is exam question 4 of lesson 414 «Russian Folk-Tales, The Dead Witch: demons steal the witch's skin, and her body vanishes» 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	7 become	xcomp
2	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 conclude	aux
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 women	det
4	women	woman	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 conclude	nsubj
5	conclude	conclude	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 What	acl:relcl
6	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 become	aux
7	become	become	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 corpse	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 corpse	det
10	corpse	corpse	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 become	xcomp
11	once	once	SCONJ	_	15 fled	mark
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 demon	det
13	demon	demon	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 fled	nsubj:pass
14	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	15 fled	aux
15	fled	flee	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 corpse	acl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 become	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	conclude	past · do-support	the women		vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality
2	become	past · perfect		the corpse	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
3	flee	past · perfect · passive	the corpse not said here	the demon	vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Initial_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 demons had dragged her under the stove to hide

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 demons	det
2	demons	demon	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 dragged	nsubj:pass
3	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 dragged	aux
4	dragged	drag	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 dragged	obj
6	under	under	ADP	_	8 stove	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 stove	det
8	stove	stove	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 dragged	obl
9	to	to	PART	_	10 hide	mark
10	hide	hide	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 dragged	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drag	past · perfect · passive		the demons		the stove			tree rules
2	hide	to-infinitive							vn concealment-16-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

The neighbors had taken her

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 neighbors	det
2	neighbors	neighbor	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 taken	nsubj:pass
3	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 taken	aux
4	taken	take	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 taken	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	take	past · perfect · passive		the neighbors					vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Theme she=Destination

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

The witch had got up and walked out of the cottage alone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 witch	det
2	witch	witch	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 got	nsubj
3	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 got	aux
4	got	get	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	up	up	ADP	_	4 got	compound:prt
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 walked	cc
7	walked	walk	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 got	conj
8	out	out	ADP	_	11 cottage	case
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 cottage	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 cottage	det
11	cottage	cottage	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 walked	obl
12	alone	alone	ADV	_	7 walked	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	get up	past · perfect	the witch						vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer
2	walk out	past	the witch not said here	the cottage				alone property	vn resign-10.11-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cottage=Attribute

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The demons had carried her off

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 demons	det
2	demons	demon	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 carried	nsubj:pass
3	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 carried	aux
4	carried	carry	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 carried	obj
6	off	off	ADP	_	4 carried	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	carry off	past · perfect · passive		the demons					vn cost-54.2 «NP V NP NP»: subject=Beneficiary she=Value

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/414-pg22373-part6/e4/