Exam question 2 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Red Shoes, part 168: Karen dan…

By what agency was the child's foot released from the cursed shoes?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: agency · What happens: be, release, curse · To what, where: foot, cursed shoes

This is exam question 2 of lesson 957 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Red Shoes, part 168: Karen dances in her red shoes and cannot stop» 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	3 agency	obl
3	agency	agency	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 foot	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 foot	cop
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 child	det
6	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 foot	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 child	case
8	foot	foot	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
9	released	release	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 foot	acl
10	from	from	ADP	_	13 shoes	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 shoes	det
12	cursed	curse	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	13 shoes	amod
13	shoes	shoe	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 released	obl
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 foot	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	is a	past	agency	the child's foot		tree rules
2	release	participle		the child's foot not said here	the cursed shoes	vn free-10.6.3-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Causer
3	curse	participle				vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=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 the executioner who came with his axe and a red cloak in the morning

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	3 executioner	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 executioner	det
3	executioner	executioner	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 came	nsubj
5	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 executioner	acl:relcl
6	with	with	ADP	_	8 axe	case
7	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 axe	nmod:poss
8	axe	axe	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 came	obl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 cloak	cc
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 cloak	det
11	red	red	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 cloak	amod
12	cloak	cloak	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 axe	conj
13	in	in	ADP	_	15 morning	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 morning	det
15	morning	morning	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 came	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	come	past	the executioner				morning	with his axe and a red cloak	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

By the executioner's heavy axe that struck off her feet

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	6 axe	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 executioner	det
3	executioner	executioner	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 axe	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 executioner	case
5	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 axe	amod
6	axe	axe	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 struck	nsubj
8	struck	strike	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 axe	acl:relcl
9	off	off	ADP	_	11 feet	case
10	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 feet	nmod:poss
11	feet	foot	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 struck	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	strike off	past	the executioner's heavy axe	her feet					vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent foot=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

By the executioner's axe

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	5 axe	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 executioner	det
3	executioner	executioner	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 axe	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 executioner	case
5	axe	axe	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

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

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

By the executioner's knife

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	5 knife	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 executioner	det
3	executioner	executioner	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 knife	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 executioner	case
5	knife	knife	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/957-pg27200-part168/e2/