Exam question 4 · Russian Fairy Tales, Vasilissa the Beautiful, part 34: Vas…

What is the precise nature of the task imposed upon Vasilissa by Baba Yaga on her first evening?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: precise nature · What happens: be, impose · To what, where: task

This is exam question 4 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 nature	det
4	precise	precise	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 nature	amod
5	nature	nature	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 task	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 task	det
8	task	task	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 nature	nmod
9	imposed	impose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 task	acl
10	upon	upon	ADP	_	11 Vasilissa	case
11	Vasilissa	Vasilissa	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 imposed	obl
12	by	by	ADP	_	13 Baba	case
13	Baba	Baba	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 imposed	obl
14	Yaga	Yaga	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 Baba	flat
15	on	on	ADP	_	18 evening	case
16	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	18 evening	nmod:poss
17	first	first	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	18 evening	amod
18	evening	evening	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 Baba	nmod
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the precise nature of the task						tree rules
2	impose	participle		the task not said here				upon Vasilissa; by Baba on Baba's first evening	vn enforce-63 «NP V that S»: 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

Cleaning wheat

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Cleaning	clean	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	wheat	wheat	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Cleaning	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	clean	gerund		wheat					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent wheat=Patient

Option 2

Sifting six sacks of barley by dawn

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sifting	sift	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	six	six	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 sacks	nummod
3	sacks	sack	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Sifting	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 barley	case
5	barley	barley	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 sacks	nmod
6	by	by	ADP	_	7 dawn	case
7	dawn	dawn	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Sifting	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sift	gerund		six sacks of barley			dawn		vn disassemble-23.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sack=Patient

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Clearing four quarters of wheat of other seed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Clearing	clear	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	four	four	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 quarters	nummod
3	quarters	quarter	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Clearing	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 wheat	case
5	wheat	wheat	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 quarters	nmod
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 seed	case
7	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 seed	amod
8	seed	seed	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 wheat	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	clear	gerund		four quarters of wheat of other seed					vn clear-10.3-1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent quarter=Source

Option 4

Separating four baskets of rye from weeds

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Separating	separate	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	four	four	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 baskets	nummod
3	baskets	basket	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Separating	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 rye	case
5	rye	rye	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 baskets	nmod
6	from	from	ADP	_	7 weeds	case
7	weeds	weed	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Separating	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	separate	gerund		four baskets of rye				from weeds	vn separate-23.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent basket=Patient from weed=Co-Patient

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/e4/