Exam question 1 · Picture-Book without Pictures, The Moon's Tales, part 114:…

Which natural body is the narrator's informant in the extract, and by what means does he communicate his observations?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: he, his · What happens: be, mean, communicate, observe · To what, where: extract, observations

This is exam question 1 of lesson 903 «Picture-Book without Pictures, The Moon's Tales, part 114: Greenland, the old maid's coffin, Pompeii» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 informant	nsubj
2	natural	natural	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 body	amod
3	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 informant	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 informant	cop
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 narrator	det
6	narrator	narrator	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 informant	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 narrator	case
8	informant	informant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 extract	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 extract	det
11	extract	extract	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 informant	obl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 communicate	punct
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	19 communicate	cc
14	by	by	SCONJ	_	16 means	mark
15	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	16 means	nsubj
16	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	19 communicate	advcl
17	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	19 communicate	aux
18	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 communicate	nsubj
19	communicate	communicate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 informant	conj
20	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	21 observations	nmod:poss
21	observations	observation	NOUN	Number=Plur	19 communicate	obj
22	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 informant	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	is	present			the extract	informant property	tree rules
2	mean	present					vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
3	communicate	present · do-support	he	his observations			vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent observation=Topic
4	observe		his = he				nom observation «act 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 · ← Mova's choice

The sea, by whispering tales of the old hunters

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 sea	det
2	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 whispering	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 whispering	punct
4	by	by	SCONJ	_	5 whispering	mark
5	whispering	whisper	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
6	tales	tale	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 whispering	obj
7	of	of	ADP	_	10 hunters	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 hunters	det
9	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 hunters	amod
10	hunters	hunter	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 tales	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	whisper speech: assert	gerund	the sea	tales of the old hunters					vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tale=Topic
2	tell		the old hunters						nom tale «communication intransitive»: of=agent

Option 2

The Moon, by telling tales and describing scenes of human life in every town he passes

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Moon	det
2	Moon	Moon	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 telling	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 telling	punct
4	by	by	SCONJ	_	5 telling	mark
5	telling	tell	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
6	tales	tale	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 telling	obj
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 describing	cc
8	describing	describe	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 telling	conj
9	scenes	scene	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 describing	obj
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 life	case
11	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 life	amod
12	life	life	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 scenes	nmod
13	in	in	ADP	_	15 town	case
14	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	15 town	det
15	town	town	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 describing	obl
16	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	17 passes	nsubj
17	passes	pass	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 telling	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	gerund	the Moon	tales		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent tale=Recipient clause=Topic
2	describe	gerund	the Moon not said here	scenes of human life	every town	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent scene=Theme
3	pass	present	Moon			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

The wind, by carrying songs over the hills at night

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 wind	det
2	wind	wind	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 carrying	punct
4	by	by	SCONJ	_	5 carrying	mark
5	carrying	carry	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 wind	acl
6	songs	song	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 carrying	obj
7	over	over	ADP	_	9 hills	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 hills	det
9	hills	hill	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 carrying	obl
10	at	at	ADP	_	11 night	case
11	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 carrying	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	carry	gerund	the wind not said here	songs		the hills	night		vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent song=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The Moon, by telling tales and describing scenes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Moon	det
2	Moon	Moon	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 telling	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 telling	punct
4	by	by	SCONJ	_	5 telling	mark
5	telling	tell	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
6	tales	tale	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 telling	obj
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 describing	cc
8	describing	describe	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 telling	conj
9	scenes	scene	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 describing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	gerund	the Moon	tales					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent tale=Recipient
2	describe	gerund	the Moon not said here	scenes					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent scene=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/903-pg27200-part114/e1/