Exam question 2 · Gods and Heroes, Perseus, part 41: Perseus turns foes to s…

By what means did Perseus avoid the petrifying gaze of Medusa?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Perseus, Medusa · What happens: mean, avoid, petrify, gaze · To what, where: petrifying gaze

This is exam question 2 of lesson 535 «Gods and Heroes, Perseus, part 41: Perseus turns foes to stone and wins Andromeda» 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	6 avoid	obj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 avoid	aux
5	Perseus	Perseus	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 avoid	nsubj
6	avoid	avoid	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 gaze	det
8	petrifying	petrify	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	9 gaze	amod
9	gaze	gaze	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 avoid	obj
10	of	of	ADP	_	11 Medusa	case
11	Medusa	Medusa	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 gaze	nmod
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 avoid	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	mean	present			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	avoid	past · do-support	Perseus	the petrifying gaze of Medusa	tree rules
3	petrify	gerund			vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
4	gaze		Medusa		nom gaze «act intransitive»: of=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 hiding in a dark cave

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 hiding	mark
2	hiding	hide	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	6 cave	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 cave	det
5	dark	dark	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 cave	amod
6	cave	cave	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 hiding	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hide	gerund				a dark cave			vn concealment-16-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in cave=Location

Option 2

by closing his eyes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 closing	mark
2	closing	close	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 eyes	nmod:poss
4	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 closing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	close	gerund		his eyes					vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eye=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

by viewing her reflection in his shield

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 viewing	mark
2	viewing	view	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 reflection	nmod:poss
4	reflection	reflection	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 viewing	obj
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 shield	case
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 shield	nmod:poss
7	shield	shield	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 viewing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	view	gerund		her reflection		his shield			vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer reflection=Stimulus

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

by seeing her image in his sword

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 seeing	mark
2	seeing	see	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 image	nmod:poss
4	image	image	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 seeing	obj
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 sword	case
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 sword	nmod:poss
7	sword	sword	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 seeing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	see	gerund		her image		his sword			vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer image=Stimulus
2	image		her = she						nom image «cognition transitive»: poss=agent

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/535-pg22381-part41/e2/