Exam question 4 · Household Tales, The Juniper Tree, part 1: a childless wif…

By what means did the stepmother conceal the boy's injury from observers?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: stepmother, boy · What happens: mean, conceal, injure · To what, where: injury, observers

This is exam question 4 of lesson 763 «Household Tales, The Juniper Tree, part 1: a childless wife wishes for a red-and-white child, and her stepson's life turns dark» 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=Rel	7 conceal	obl
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 conceal	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 stepmother	det
6	stepmother	stepmother	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 conceal	nsubj
7	conceal	conceal	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 boy	det
9	boy	boy	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 injury	nmod:poss
10	's	's	PART	_	9 boy	case
11	injury	injury	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 conceal	obj
12	from	from	ADP	_	13 observers	case
13	observers	observer	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 conceal	obl
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 conceal	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	mean	present				vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	conceal	past · do-support	the stepmother	the boy's injury	observers	vn concealment-16 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent injury=Patient from observer=Beneficiary
3	injure		the boy			nom injury «state 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

By covering his face

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 covering	mark
2	covering	cover	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 face	nmod:poss
4	face	face	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 covering	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cover	gerund		his face					vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme face=Destination

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

By binding his head

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 binding	mark
2	binding	bind	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 head	nmod:poss
4	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 binding	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	bind	gerund		his head					vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Patient

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

By putting him in a chair and telling a lie

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 putting	mark
2	putting	put	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 putting	obj
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 chair	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 chair	det
6	chair	chair	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 putting	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 telling	cc
8	telling	tell	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 putting	conj
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 lie	det
10	lie	lie	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 telling	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	put	gerund		him = he		a chair			vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent he=Theme in chair=Destination
2	tell speech: assert	gerund		a lie					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent lie=Recipient

Option 4

By dressing the wound

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 dressing	mark
2	dressing	dress	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 wound	det
4	wound	wound	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 dressing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dress	gerund		the wound					vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wound=Patient

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/763-pg2591-part39/e4/