Exam question 2 · Grimm's Fairy Tales, The Goose-Girl, part 13: the maid tak…

By what means did the old king ascertain the true identity of the girl at the meadow?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: old king · What happens: mean, do, ascertain · To what, where: true identity

This is exam question 2 of lesson 737 «Grimm's Fairy Tales, The Goose-Girl, part 13: the maid takes the bride's place and Curdken spies» 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	4 did	obj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 king	det
6	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 king	amod
7	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 ascertain	nsubj
8	ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 did	ccomp
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 identity	det
10	true	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 identity	amod
11	identity	identity	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 ascertain	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 girl	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 girl	det
14	girl	girl	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 identity	nmod
15	at	at	ADP	_	17 meadow	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 meadow	det
17	meadow	meadow	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 girl	nmod
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	mean	present			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	do	past			tree rules
3	ascertain	present	the old king	the true identity of the girl at the meadow	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent identity=Topic

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 · ← Mova's choice

He questioned Curdken in the hall

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 questioned	nsubj
2	questioned	question	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	Curdken	Curdken	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 questioned	obj
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 hall	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 hall	det
6	hall	hall	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 questioned	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	question speech: other	past	He		Curdken	the hall			vn interrogate-37.1.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent curdken=Recipient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

He concealed himself in a bush and observed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 concealed	nsubj
2	concealed	conceal	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	2 concealed	obj
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 bush	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 bush	det
6	bush	bush	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 concealed	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 observed	cc
8	observed	observe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 bush	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	conceal	past	He	himself = he		a bush			vn concealment-16 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent himself=Patient in bush=Location
2	observe	participle	He not said here						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent

Option 3

He asked the girl

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 asked	nsubj
2	asked	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 girl	det
4	girl	girl	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 asked	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ask speech: ask	past	He		the girl				vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent girl=Recipient

Option 4

He hid behind a wall and listened

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 hid	nsubj
2	hid	hide	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	behind	behind	ADP	_	5 wall	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 wall	det
5	wall	wall	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 hid	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 listened	cc
7	listened	listen	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 hid	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hide	past	He			a wall			vn concealment-16-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent behind wall=Location
2	listen	past	He not said here						vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=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/737-pg2591-part13/e2/