Exam question 2 · Myths of Ancient Greece, Zeus, part 6: Zeus's oracle at Do…

According to the text, by what means did Zeus prevent the fulfilment of the prophecy concerning Metis?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Zeus, prophecy · What happens: accord, mean, prevent, concern, fulfil · To what, where: text, fulfilment, Metis, prophecy · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 2 of lesson 500 «Myths of Ancient Greece, Zeus, part 6: Zeus's oracle at Dodona, the Olympic games, and his wives» 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	According	accord	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 means	csubj
2	to	to	ADP	_	4 text	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 text	det
4	text	text	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 According	obl
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 means	punct
6	by	by	SCONJ	_	8 means	mark
7	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	8 means	nsubj
8	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 prevent	aux
10	Zeus	Zeus	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 prevent	nsubj
11	prevent	prevent	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 means	ccomp
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 fulfilment	det
13	fulfilment	fulfilment	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 prevent	obj
14	of	of	ADP	_	16 prophecy	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 prophecy	det
16	prophecy	prophecy	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 fulfilment	nmod
17	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	16 prophecy	acl
18	Metis	metis	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 concerning	obj
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 means	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	accord	gerund			to the text goal	vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP PP.goal»: agent=Agent to text=Goal
2	mean	present				vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	prevent	past · do-support	Zeus	the fulfilment of the prophecy		vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer fulfilment=Theme
4	concern	gerund	the prophecy not said here	Metis		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus metis=Experiencer
5	fulfil			the prophecy		nom fulfilment «feeling transitive»: of=patient

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 sending her away

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 sending	mark
2	sending	send	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 sending	obj
4	away	away	ADV	_	2 sending	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	send away	gerund		her = she				away property	vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

by binding her fate

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 binding	mark
2	binding	bind	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 fate	nmod:poss
4	fate	fate	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 binding	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	bind	gerund		her fate					vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fate=Patient
2	fate		her = she						nom fate «event transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

by marrying her

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 marrying	mark
2	marrying	marry	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 marrying	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	marry	gerund		her = she					vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

by swallowing her

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 swallowing	mark
2	swallowing	swallow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 swallowing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	swallow	gerund		her = she					vn gobble-39.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=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/500-pg22381-part6/e2/