Exam question 2 · Andersen's Tales, The Flying Trunk: the kitchen talk ends…

By what means did the merchant's son's trunk cease to exist?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: mean, do, exist · To what, where: trunk cease

This is exam question 2 of lesson 829 «Andersen's Tales, The Flying Trunk: the kitchen talk ends and the trunk burns» 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	6 merchant	det
6	merchant	merchant	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 son	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 merchant	case
8	son	son	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 cease	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 son	case
10	trunk	trunk	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 cease	compound
11	cease	cease	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
12	to	to	PART	_	13 exist	mark
13	exist	exist	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 cease	acl
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	roles by
1	mean	present		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	do	past	the merchant's son's trunk cease	tree rules
3	exist	to-infinitive	the merchant's son's trunk cease not said here	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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

it was crushed by a falling wall

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 crushed	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 crushed	aux:pass
3	crushed	crush	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	7 wall	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 wall	det
6	falling	fall	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 wall	amod
7	wall	wall	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 crushed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	crush	past · passive	a falling wall	it					vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient
2	fall	gerund							vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

it was slowly consumed by a fire started by a spark from the rockets above

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 consumed	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 consumed	aux:pass
3	slowly	slowly	ADV	_	4 consumed	advmod
4	consumed	consume	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 fire	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 fire	det
7	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 consumed	obl
8	started	start	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 fire	acl
9	by	by	ADP	_	11 spark	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 spark	det
11	spark	spark	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 started	obl
12	from	from	ADP	_	14 rockets	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 rockets	det
14	rockets	rocket	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consumed	obl
15	above	above	ADV	_	4 consumed	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	consume	past · passive	a fire	it		the rockets		above, slowly property	vn consume-66 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Asset
2	start	participle		a fire not said here				by a spark	vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

it was consumed by fire from a spark

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 consumed	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 consumed	aux:pass
3	consumed	consume	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 fire	case
5	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 consumed	obl
6	from	from	ADP	_	8 spark	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 spark	det
8	spark	spark	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 consumed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	consume	past · passive	fire	it		a spark			vn consume-66 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Asset

Option 4

it was consumed by fire that jumped from a spark of the fireworks

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 consumed	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 consumed	aux:pass
3	consumed	consume	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 fire	case
5	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 consumed	obl
6	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 jumped	nsubj
7	jumped	jump	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 fire	acl:relcl
8	from	from	ADP	_	10 spark	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 spark	det
10	spark	spark	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 jumped	obl
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 fireworks	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 fireworks	det
13	fireworks	firework	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 spark	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	consume	past · passive	fire	it		vn consume-66 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Asset
2	jump	past	fire		a spark of the fireworks	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from spark=Trajectory
3	spark		the fireworks			nom spark «event intransitive»: of=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/829-pg27200-part40/e2/