Exam question 3 · Household Tales, Ashputtel, part 35: a cruel stepmother se…

By what means did the stepmother attempt to prevent the young girl from attending the feast?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · What happens: mean, do, prevent, attend · To what, where: stepmother attempt, young girl, feast · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 3 of lesson 759 «Household Tales, Ashputtel, part 35: a cruel stepmother sets impossible tasks, and a hazel-tree brings Ashputtel a golden dress for the king's 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	root	root
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 means	ccomp
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 attempt	det
6	stepmother	stepmother	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 attempt	compound
7	attempt	attempt	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
8	to	to	PART	_	9 prevent	mark
9	prevent	prevent	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 attempt	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 girl	det
11	young	young	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 girl	amod
12	girl	girl	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 prevent	obj
13	from	from	SCONJ	_	14 attending	mark
14	attending	attend	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 prevent	advcl
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 feast	det
16	feast	feast	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 attending	obj
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 means	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	roles by
1	mean	present		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	do	past	the stepmother attempt	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent attempt=Eventuality
3	prevent	to-infinitive	the young girl	vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer girl=Theme
4	attend	gerund	the feast	vn attend-107.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme feast=Goal

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 locking her in the cellar

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 locking	mark
2	locking	lock	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 locking	obj
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 cellar	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 cellar	det
6	cellar	cellar	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 locking	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lock	gerund		her = she		the cellar			vn tape-22.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Patient

Option 2

By sending her away to the farm

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 sending	mark
2	sending	send	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	her	she	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 sending	obj
4	away	away	ADV	_	2 sending	advmod
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 farm	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 farm	det
7	farm	farm	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 sending	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	send away	gerund		her = she				to the farm; away property	vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent she=Theme

Option 3

By selling her gown to a merchant

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 selling	mark
2	selling	sell	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 gown	nmod:poss
4	gown	gown	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 selling	obj
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 merchant	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 merchant	det
7	merchant	merchant	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 selling	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sell	gerund		her gown	a merchant				vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent gown=Theme to merchant=Recipient

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

By setting her impossible tasks

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 setting	mark
2	setting	set	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 tasks	nmod:poss
4	impossible	impossible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 tasks	amod
5	tasks	task	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 setting	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	set	gerund		her impossible tasks					vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient task=Result
2	task		her = she						nom task «act transitive»: poss=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/759-pg2591-part35/e3/