Exam question 1 · Russian Tales, The Staring-Eyed Shepherd: the king's toast…

By what means did the shepherd evade the sentence of death imposed upon him?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: shepherd · What happens: mean, evade, impose, sentence · To what, where: sentence, death

This is exam question 1 of lesson 666 «Russian Tales, The Staring-Eyed Shepherd: the king's toast and the wedding feast» 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	SCONJ	_	3 means	mark
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 means	nsubj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 evade	advcl
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 evade	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 shepherd	det
6	shepherd	shepherd	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 evade	nsubj
7	evade	evade	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 sentence	det
9	sentence	sentence	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 evade	obj
10	of	of	ADP	_	11 death	case
11	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 sentence	nmod
12	imposed	impose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 sentence	acl
13	upon	upon	ADP	_	14 him	case
14	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 imposed	obl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 evade	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	mean	present				vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	evade	past · do-support	the shepherd	the sentence of death		vn avoid-52 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent sentence=Location
3	impose	participle		the sentence of death not said here	upon shepherd	vn enforce-63 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
4	sentence			death		nom sentence «communication 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 concealing himself in a dark corner until the guards had gone home

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 concealing	mark
2	concealing	conceal	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	2 concealing	obj
4	in	in	ADP	_	7 corner	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 corner	det
6	dark	dark	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 corner	amod
7	corner	corner	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 concealing	obl
8	until	until	SCONJ	_	12 gone	mark
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 guards	det
10	guards	guard	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 gone	nsubj
11	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 gone	aux
12	gone	go	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	2 concealing	advcl
13	home	home	ADV	_	12 gone	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	conceal	gerund		himself = he		a dark corner			vn concealment-16 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent himself=Patient in corner=Location
2	go	past · perfect	the guards					home property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

by escaping through the well

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 escaping	mark
2	escaping	escape	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	through	through	ADP	_	5 well	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 well	det
5	well	well	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 escaping	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	escape	gerund				the well			vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme through well=Initial_Location

Option 3

by concealing himself in a dark corner of the courtyard, unseen

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 concealing	mark
2	concealing	conceal	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	12 unseen	advcl
3	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	2 concealing	obj
4	in	in	ADP	_	7 corner	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 corner	det
6	dark	dark	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 corner	amod
7	corner	corner	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 concealing	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 courtyard	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 courtyard	det
10	courtyard	courtyard	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 corner	nmod
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 concealing	punct
12	unseen	unseen	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	conceal	gerund		himself = he		a dark corner of the courtyard			vn concealment-16 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent himself=Patient in corner=Location

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

by concealing himself in a dark corner

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 concealing	mark
2	concealing	conceal	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	2 concealing	obj
4	in	in	ADP	_	7 corner	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 corner	det
6	dark	dark	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 corner	amod
7	corner	corner	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 concealing	obl

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

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/666-pg2435-part6/e1/