Exam question 3 · Russian Fairy Tales, Vasilissa the Beautiful, part 34: Vas…

By what implement does Baba Yaga propel her mortar, as described in the passage?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Baba · What happens: propel, describe · To what, where: mortar, passage

This is exam question 3 of lesson 442 «Russian Fairy Tales, Vasilissa the Beautiful, part 34: Vasilissa goes to Baba Yaga's for a light and gets through an impossible task» 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	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	7 propel	obl
3	implement	implement	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 what	nsubj
4	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 propel	aux
5	Baba	Baba	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 propel	nsubj
6	Yaga	Yaga	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 Baba	flat
7	propel	propel	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 mortar	nmod:poss
9	mortar	mortar	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 propel	obj
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 described	punct
11	as	as	SCONJ	_	12 described	mark
12	described	describe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 propel	parataxis
13	in	in	ADP	_	15 passage	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 passage	det
15	passage	passage	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 described	obl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 propel	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	propel	present · do-support	Baba	Baba's mortar					tree rules
2	describe	participle				the passage			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent

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 pushing hard with her bare feet on the ground

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 pushing	mark
2	pushing	push	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	hard	hard	ADV	Degree=Pos	2 pushing	advmod
4	with	with	ADP	_	7 feet	case
5	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 feet	nmod:poss
6	bare	bare	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 feet	amod
7	feet	foot	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 pushing	obl
8	on	on	ADP	_	10 ground	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 ground	det
10	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pushing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	push	gerund						with her bare feet; on the ground; hard property	vn push-12-1-1 «NP V PP-Conative»: agent=Agent on ground=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

With a long iron pole she pushes against the ground

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	With	with	ADP	_	5 pole	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 pole	det
3	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 pole	amod
4	iron	iron	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 pole	compound
5	pole	pole	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 pushes	obl
6	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 pushes	nsubj
7	pushes	push	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	against	against	ADP	_	10 ground	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 ground	det
10	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 pushes	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	push	present	she					with a long iron pole; against the ground	vn push-12-1-1 «NP V PP-Conative»: agent=Agent against ground=Theme

Option 3

With a shovel

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	With	with	ADP	_	3 shovel	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 shovel	det
3	shovel	shovel	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

With a pestle

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	With	with	ADP	_	3 pestle	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 pestle	det
3	pestle	pestle	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

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/442-pg22373-part34/e3/