Exam question 2 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 10…

Upon what part of the horse did the robbers seize hold before dragging the two riders from its back?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: robbers · What happens: seize, drag · To what, where: hold, two riders, back

This is exam question 2 of lesson 893 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Marsh King's Daughter, part 104: robbers kill the priest and horse, and Helga, now a frog, buries him» 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	Upon	upon	ADP	_	3 part	case
2	what	what	DET	PronType=Int	3 part	det
3	part	part	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 seize	obl
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 horse	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 horse	det
6	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 part	nmod
7	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 seize	aux
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 robbers	det
9	robbers	robber	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 seize	nsubj
10	seize	seize	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
11	hold	hold	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 seize	obj
12	before	before	SCONJ	_	13 dragging	mark
13	dragging	drag	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	10 seize	advcl
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 riders	det
15	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	16 riders	nummod
16	riders	rider	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 dragging	obj
17	from	from	ADP	_	19 back	case
18	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	19 back	nmod:poss
19	back	back	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 dragging	obl
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	10 seize	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	seize	past · do-support	the robbers	hold				upon what part of the horse	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hold=Theme
2	drag	gerund	the robbers not said here	the two riders		hold's back			vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.initial_location»: agent=Agent rider=Theme from back=Initial_Location

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 long leather reins hanging from its head

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reins	det
2	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reins	amod
3	leather	leather	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 reins	compound
4	reins	rein	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
5	hanging	hang	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 reins	acl
6	from	from	ADP	_	8 head	case
7	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 head	nmod:poss
8	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 hanging	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hang	gerund	the long leather reins not said here			its head			vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

the thick rope tied around its neck and mouth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 rope	det
2	thick	thick	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 rope	amod
3	rope	rope	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	tied	tie	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 rope	acl
5	around	around	ADP	_	7 neck	case
6	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 neck	nmod:poss
7	neck	neck	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 tied	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 mouth	cc
9	mouth	mouth	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 neck	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tie	participle		the thick rope not said here		rope's neck and mouth			vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

its bridle

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 bridle	nmod:poss
2	bridle	bridle	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

its mane

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 mane	nmod:poss
2	mane	mane	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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/893-pg27200-part104/e2/