Exam question 3 · Orange Fairy Book, The Gold-Bearded Man, part 1: a wicked…

What reason does the narrator attribute to the new king's prohibition concerning the milk-brook?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: reason, prohibition, new king · What happens: do, concern, prohibit · To what, where: narrator attribute, milk brook

This is exam question 3 of lesson 693 «Orange Fairy Book, The Gold-Bearded Man, part 1: a wicked stepfather, a milk-brook, and a golden cage» 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	What	what	DET	PronType=Int	2 reason	det
2	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 does	nsubj
3	does	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 attribute	det
5	narrator	narrator	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 attribute	compound
6	attribute	attribute	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 does	obj
7	to	to	ADP	_	12 prohibition	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 king	det
9	new	new	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 king	amod
10	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 prohibition	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 king	case
12	prohibition	prohibition	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 does	obl
13	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	12 prohibition	acl
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 brook	det
15	milk	milk	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 brook	compound
16	-	-	PUNCT	_	15 milk	punct
17	brook	brook	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 concerning	obj
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 does	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	do	present	what reason	the narrator attribute	to the new king's prohibition	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent attribute=Eventuality
2	concern	gerund	the new king's prohibition not said here	the milk brook		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus brook=Experiencer
3	prohibit		the new king			nom prohibition «communication 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

because the milk was far too sour

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	because	because	SCONJ	_	7 sour	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 milk	det
3	milk	milk	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 sour	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 sour	cop
5	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	7 sour	advmod
6	too	too	ADV	_	7 sour	advmod
7	sour	sour	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the milk					far, sour property	tree rules

Option 2

because the old queen had secretly cursed the brook long before his birth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	because	because	SCONJ	_	7 cursed	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 queen	det
3	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 queen	amod
4	queen	queen	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 cursed	nsubj:pass
5	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 cursed	aux
6	secretly	secretly	ADV	_	7 cursed	advmod
7	cursed	curse	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 brook	det
9	brook	brook	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 cursed	obj
10	long	long	ADV	Degree=Pos	7 cursed	advmod
11	before	before	ADP	_	13 birth	case
12	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 birth	nmod:poss
13	birth	birth	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 cursed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	curse	past · perfect · passive		the old queen			before his birth	long, secretly property	tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

mere spite, since milk is plentiful

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	mere	mere	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 spite	amod
2	spite	spite	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 plentiful	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 spite	punct
4	since	since	ADP	_	5 milk	case
5	milk	milk	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 spite	nmod
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 plentiful	cop
7	plentiful	plentiful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	mere spite since milk					plentiful property	tree rules

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

to keep the brook for himself

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	to	to	PART	_	2 keep	mark
2	keep	keep	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 brook	det
4	brook	brook	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 keep	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 himself	case
6	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	2 keep	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	to-infinitive		the brook				for himself = he	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent brook=Theme

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/693-pg2435-part33/e3/