Exam question 4 · Grimm's Fairy Tales, Hansel and Gretel, part 19: the child…

In what manner did the birds frustrate Hansel's second attempt at navigation?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: birds, Hansel · What happens: do, frustrate, attempt · To what, where: manner, second attempt, navigation

This is exam question 4 of lesson 743 «Grimm's Fairy Tales, Hansel and Gretel, part 19: the children are led into the forest and get lost» 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	In	in	ADP	_	3 manner	case
2	what	what	DET	PronType=Int	3 manner	det
3	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obl
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 birds	det
6	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 frustrate	nsubj
7	frustrate	frustrate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 did	parataxis
8	Hansel	Hansel	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 attempt	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 Hansel	case
10	second	second	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	11 attempt	amod
11	attempt	attempt	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 frustrate	obj
12	at	at	ADP	_	13 navigation	case
13	navigation	navigation	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 attempt	nmod
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	do	past			what manner	vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	frustrate	present	the birds	Hansel's second attempt	navigation	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus attempt=Experiencer
3	attempt		Hansel		navigation	nom attempt «act transitive»: poss=agent at=place

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

By eating up every single crumb that Hansel had carefully dropped

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 eating	mark
2	eating	eat	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	up	up	ADP	_	2 eating	compound:prt
4	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	6 crumb	det
5	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 crumb	amod
6	crumb	crumb	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 eating	obj
7	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 dropped	nsubj:pass
8	Hansel	Hansel	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 dropped	nsubj
9	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 dropped	aux
10	carefully	carefully	ADV	_	11 dropped	advmod
11	dropped	drop	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 crumb	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat up	gerund		every single crumb					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent crumb=Patient
2	drop	past · perfect · passive		every single crumb				carefully property	vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 2

By stealing the bread crumbs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 stealing	mark
2	stealing	steal	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 crumbs	det
4	bread	bread	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 crumbs	compound
5	crumbs	crumb	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 stealing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	steal	gerund		the bread crumbs					vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location crumb=Theme

Option 3

By greedily consuming all of the scattered breadcrumbs along the path

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	3 consuming	mark
2	greedily	greedily	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 consuming	amod
3	consuming	consume	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	3 consuming	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 breadcrumbs	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 breadcrumbs	det
7	scattered	scatter	ADJ	_	8 breadcrumbs	amod
8	breadcrumbs	breadcrumb	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 all	nmod
9	along	along	ADP	_	11 path	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 path	det
11	path	path	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 consuming	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	consume	gerund		all				along the path	vn consume-66 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent all=Asset

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

By consuming the scattered breadcrumbs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 consuming	mark
2	consuming	consume	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 breadcrumbs	det
4	scattered	scatter	ADJ	_	5 breadcrumbs	amod
5	breadcrumbs	breadcrumb	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 consuming	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	consume	gerund		the scattered breadcrumbs					vn consume-66 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent breadcrumb=Asset

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.

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