Exam question 4 · Russian Fairy Tales, Frost, part 49: the stepmother's daug…

How does the stepmother's reaction on discovering the daughters' fate characterise her nature?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: stepmother, daughters · What happens: do, discover, characterise, react, fate · To what, where: reaction, fate, nature

This is exam question 4 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	How	how	ADV	PronType=Int	2 does	advmod
2	does	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 characterise	advcl
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 stepmother	det
4	stepmother	stepmother	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 reaction	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 stepmother	case
6	reaction	reaction	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 does	obj
7	on	on	SCONJ	_	8 discovering	mark
8	discovering	discover	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	13 characterise	advcl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 daughters	det
10	daughters	daughter	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 fate	nmod:poss
11	'	's	PART	_	10 daughters	case
12	fate	fate	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 discovering	obj
13	characterise	characterise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
14	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 nature	nmod:poss
15	nature	nature	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 characterise	obj
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	13 characterise	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	do	present		the stepmother's reaction	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reaction=Eventuality
2	discover	gerund		the daughters's fate	vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fate=Topic
3	characterise	present		stepmother's nature	tree rules
4	react		the stepmother		nom reaction «process intransitive»: poss=agent
5	fate		the daughters		nom fate «event transitive»: poss=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 · ✓ the right answer

She reproaches her husband with fury and malice

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 reproaches	nsubj
2	reproaches	reproach	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 husband	nmod:poss
4	husband	husband	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reproaches	obj
5	with	with	ADP	_	6 fury	case
6	fury	fury	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reproaches	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 malice	cc
8	malice	malice	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 fury	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reproach	present	She	her husband				with fury and malice	vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent husband=Theme

Option 2

She blames the girls and laughs coldly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 blames	nsubj
2	blames	blame	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 girls	det
4	girls	girl	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 blames	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 laughs	cc
6	laughs	laugh	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 blames	conj
7	coldly	coldly	ADV	_	6 laughs	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	blame	present	She	the girls					vn judgment-33.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent girl=Theme
2	laugh	present	She not said here					coldly property	vn nonverbal_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

She grieves quietly and forgives him

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 grieves	nsubj
2	grieves	grieve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	quietly	quietly	ADV	_	2 grieves	advmod
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 forgives	cc
5	forgives	forgive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 grieves	conj
6	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 forgives	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grieve	present	She					quietly property	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer
2	forgive	present	She not said here	him = he					vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme

Option 4

She is calm

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 calm	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 calm	cop
3	calm	calm	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	She					calm property	tree rules

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/e4/