Exam question 2 · Just So Stories, The Crab that Played with the Sea, part 3…

Ascertain the agent who, according to the narrative, conveyed the canoe back into the Perak river.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, agent · What happens: ascertain, accord, convey back · To what, where: agent, canoe, Perak river

This is exam question 2 of lesson 92 «Just So Stories, The Crab that Played with the Sea, part 3: the Moon pulls the sea, and how tides really work» 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 agent	det
3	agent	agent	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 conveyed	nsubj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 conveyed	punct
6	according	accord	VERB	ExtPos=ADP Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 narrative	case
7	to	to	ADP	_	6 according	fixed
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 narrative	det
9	narrative	narrative	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 conveyed	obl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 narrative	punct
11	conveyed	convey	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 agent	acl:relcl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 canoe	det
13	canoe	canoe	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 conveyed	obj
14	back	back	ADV	_	11 conveyed	advmod
15	into	into	ADP	_	18 river	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 river	det
17	Perak	Perak	PROPN	Number=Sing	18 river	compound
18	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 conveyed	obl
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the agent			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent agent=Topic
2	accord	gerund					vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent
3	convey back	past	the agent	the canoe	the Perak river	accord the narrative	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent canoe=Topic

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 Eldest Magician's son

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 Magician	det
2	Eldest	eld	ADJ	Degree=Sup	3 Magician	amod
3	Magician	Magician	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 son	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 Magician	case
5	son	son	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

The Sea, which carried the canoe back with the tide that always comes twice a day

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 Sea	det
2	Sea	Sea	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 carried	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 carried	punct
4	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 carried	nsubj
5	carried	carry	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 canoe	det
7	canoe	canoe	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 carried	obj
8	back	back	ADV	_	5 carried	advmod
9	with	with	ADP	_	11 tide	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 tide	det
11	tide	tide	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 carried	obl
12	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	14 comes	nsubj
13	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	14 comes	advmod
14	comes	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 tide	acl:relcl
15	twice	twice	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	14 comes	advmod
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 day	det
17	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 comes	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	carry back	past	the Sea	the canoe				with the tide	vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent canoe=Theme
2	come	present	the tide				day	always, twice property	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

The Fisherman of the Moon, who pulled the sea with his line

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Fisherman	det
2	Fisherman	Fisherman	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 pulled	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 Moon	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 Moon	det
5	Moon	Moon	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 Fisherman	nmod
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 pulled	punct
7	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 pulled	nsubj
8	pulled	pull	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 sea	det
10	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 pulled	obj
11	with	with	ADP	_	13 line	case
12	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 line	nmod:poss
13	line	line	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 pulled	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pull	past	the Fisherman of the Moon	the sea				with Fisherman's line	vn push-12-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sea=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The Fisherman of the Moon

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Fisherman	det
2	Fisherman	Fisherman	PROPN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 Moon	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 Moon	det
5	Moon	Moon	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 Fisherman	nmod

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/92-justso-crab-3-the-moon-pulls-the-sea/e2/