Exam question 4 · Uncle Remus, A Plantation Witch, part 1: the boy hears of…

Which creature, in the sequence described, is the last to approach the dwelling?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: creature · What happens: describe, be, approach · To what, where: sequence, dwelling

This is exam question 4 of lesson 586 «Uncle Remus, A Plantation Witch, part 1: the boy hears of witch-stirrups and a witch who loses his skin» 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	Which	which	DET	PronType=Int	2 creature	det
2	creature	creature	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 last	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 sequence	punct
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 sequence	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 sequence	det
6	sequence	sequence	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 creature	appos
7	described	describe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 sequence	acl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 creature	punct
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 last	cop
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 last	det
11	last	last	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
12	to	to	PART	_	13 approach	mark
13	approach	approach	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 last	csubj
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 dwelling	det
15	dwelling	dwelling	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 approach	obj
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	11 last	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	describe	participle		the sequence not said here		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent
2	is	present	which creature		last property	tree rules
3	approach	to-infinitive		the dwelling		vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dwelling=Theme

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

A great black wolf with eyes like fire coals that glow in the dark

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 wolf	det
2	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 wolf	amod
3	black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 wolf	amod
4	wolf	wolf	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	with	with	ADP	_	6 eyes	case
6	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 wolf	nmod
7	like	like	ADP	_	9 coals	case
8	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 coals	compound
9	coals	coal	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 eyes	nmod
10	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 glow	nsubj
11	glow	glow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 coals	acl:relcl
12	in	in	ADP	_	14 dark	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 dark	det
14	dark	dark	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 glow	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	glow	present	fire coals			the dark			vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in dark=Location

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

A great black wolf with fiery eyes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 wolf	det
2	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 wolf	amod
3	black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 wolf	amod
4	wolf	wolf	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 eyes	case
6	fiery	fiery	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 eyes	amod
7	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 wolf	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

The little black cat with yellow eyes that came up the path after the owl was gone

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 cat	det
2	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 cat	amod
3	black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 cat	amod
4	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 gone	nsubj
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 eyes	case
6	yellow	yellow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 eyes	amod
7	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 cat	nmod
8	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 came	nsubj
9	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 eyes	acl:relcl
10	up	up	ADP	_	12 path	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 path	det
12	path	path	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 came	obl
13	after	after	ADP	_	15 owl	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 owl	det
15	owl	owl	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 came	obl
16	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	17 gone	cop
17	gone	gone	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	come up	past	yellow eyes	the path			after the owl		vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location path=Theme
2	is	past	the little black cat with yellow eyes					gone property	tree rules

Option 4

A big black cat with yellow eyes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 cat	det
2	big	big	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 cat	amod
3	black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 cat	amod
4	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 eyes	case
6	yellow	yellow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 eyes	amod
7	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 cat	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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/586-pg2306-part22/e4/