Exam question 2 · Grimm's Fairy Tales, Clever Elsie: Elsie weeps over a pick…

What did Elsie occupy herself with while the beer was running from the barrel?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Elsie, beer · What happens: occupy, run · To what, where: Elsie, barrel

This is exam question 2 of lesson 757 «Grimm's Fairy Tales, Clever Elsie: Elsie weeps over a pick-axe and wins Hans» 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	PRON	PronType=Int	4 occupy	obj
2	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 occupy	aux
3	Elsie	Elsie	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 occupy	nsubj
4	occupy	occupy	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	herself	herself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	4 occupy	obj
6	with	with	SCONJ	_	11 running	mark
7	while	while	SCONJ	_	11 running	mark
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 beer	det
9	beer	beer	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 running	nsubj
10	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 running	aux
11	running	run	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 occupy	advcl
12	from	from	ADP	_	14 barrel	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 barrel	det
14	barrel	barrel	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 running	obl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 occupy	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	occupy	past · do-support	Elsie	Elsie					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Stimulus what=Experiencer herself=Result
2	run	past · progressive	the beer			the barrel			vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from barrel=Trajectory

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 · ✓ the right answer

Peering at the wall overhead

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Peering	peer	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	at	at	ADP	_	5 overhead	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 overhead	det
4	wall	wall	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 overhead	compound
5	overhead	overhead	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Peering	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	peer	gerund						at the wall overhead	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at overhead=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Staring at the barrel

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Staring	stare	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	at	at	ADP	_	4 barrel	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 barrel	det
4	barrel	barrel	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Staring	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	stare	gerund						at the barrel	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at barrel=Theme

Option 3

Gazing at the ceiling above

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Gazing	gaze	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	at	at	ADP	_	4 ceiling	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 ceiling	det
4	ceiling	ceiling	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Gazing	obl
5	above	above	ADV	_	1 Gazing	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	gaze	gerund						at the ceiling; above property	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at ceiling=Theme

Option 4

Peering at the wall overhead while the beer ran out

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Peering	peer	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	9 ran	csubj
2	at	at	ADP	_	4 wall	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 wall	det
4	wall	wall	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Peering	obl
5	overhead	overhead	ADV	_	1 Peering	advmod
6	while	while	SCONJ	_	9 ran	mark
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 beer	det
8	beer	beer	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 ran	nsubj
9	ran	run	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	out	out	ADP	_	9 ran	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	peer	gerund						at the wall; overhead property	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at wall=Theme
2	run out	past	the beer						vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=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/757-pg2591-part33/e2/