Exam question 3 · Russian Fairy Tales, Frost, part 49: the stepmother's daug…

What misfortune befell the stepdaughters, in consequence of their conduct toward Frost?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: misfortune, stepdaughters · What happens: befall, conduct · To what, where: stepdaughters, consequence

This is exam question 3 of lesson 457 «Russian Fairy Tales, Frost, part 49: the stepmother's daughters freeze in the forest» 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	DET	PronType=Int	2 misfortune	det
2	misfortune	misfortune	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 befell	nsubj
3	befell	befall	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 stepdaughters	det
5	stepdaughters	stepdaughter	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 befell	obj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 consequence	punct
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 consequence	case
8	consequence	consequence	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 befell	obl
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 conduct	case
10	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 conduct	nmod:poss
11	conduct	conduct	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 consequence	nmod
12	toward	toward	ADP	_	13 Frost	case
13	Frost	frost	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 conduct	nmod
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 befell	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	befall	past	what misfortune	the stepdaughters		consequence of stepdaughters's conduct toward Frost			tree rules
2	conduct		stepdaughters = stepdaughter					toward Frost	nom conduct «act transitive»: poss=agent toward=obl

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

They were frozen to death in the forest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 frozen	nsubj:pass
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 frozen	aux:pass
3	frozen	freeze	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	5 death	case
5	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 frozen	obl
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 forest	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 forest	det
8	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 frozen	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	freeze	past · passive		They		the forest		to death	vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Result

Option 2

They were frozen to death in the forest after they insulted Frost and refused to be kind

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 frozen	nsubj:pass
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 frozen	aux:pass
3	frozen	freeze	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	5 death	case
5	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 frozen	obl
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 forest	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 forest	det
8	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 frozen	obl
9	after	after	SCONJ	_	11 insulted	mark
10	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 insulted	nsubj
11	insulted	insult	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 frozen	advcl
12	Frost	Frost	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 insulted	obj
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 refused	cc
14	refused	refuse	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 insulted	conj
15	to	to	PART	_	17 kind	mark
16	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	17 kind	cop
17	kind	kind	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 refused	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	freeze	past · passive		They	the forest	to death	vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Result
2	insult	past	they	Frost			vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus frost=Experiencer
3	refuse	past	they not said here				vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent
4	not is	to-infinitive	they not said here			kind property	tree rules

Option 3

They were lost in a snowstorm there

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 lost	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 lost	aux:pass
3	lost	lose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 snowstorm	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 snowstorm	det
6	snowstorm	snowstorm	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lost	obl
7	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	3 lost	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lose	past · passive		They		a snowstorm; there			vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

They were frozen to death in the forest, as punishment for their rudeness toward the bridegroom

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 frozen	nsubj:pass
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 frozen	aux:pass
3	frozen	freeze	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	5 death	case
5	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 frozen	obl
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 forest	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 forest	det
8	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 frozen	obl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 punishment	punct
10	as	as	ADP	_	11 punishment	case
11	punishment	punishment	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 frozen	parataxis
12	for	for	ADP	_	14 rudeness	case
13	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 rudeness	nmod:poss
14	rudeness	rudeness	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 punishment	nmod
15	toward	toward	ADP	_	17 bridegroom	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 bridegroom	det
17	bridegroom	bridegroom	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 frozen	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	freeze	past · passive		They		the forest		to death; toward the bridegroom	vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Result

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/457-pg22373-part49/e3/