Exam question 2 · Reading poems: meaning, sound and pictures

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the image of a tiger «burning bright»?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: tiger · What happens: follow, characteris, burn, image · To what, where: image, tiger

This is exam question 2 of lesson 25 «Reading poems: meaning, sound and pictures» of the English 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 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 image	det
10	image	image	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 tiger	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 tiger	det
13	tiger	tiger	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 image	nmod
14	«	«	PUNCT	_	15 burning	punct
15	burning	burn	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	13 tiger	acl
16	bright	bright	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 burning	xcomp
17	»	»	PUNCT	_	15 burning	punct
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the image of a tiger	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	burn in a quote	gerund	a tiger not said here		bright property	vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
4	image			a tiger		nom image «cognition transitive»: of=patient

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 poet is describing a forest fire

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 poet	det
2	poet	poet	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 describing	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 describing	aux
4	describing	describe	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 fire	det
6	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 fire	compound
7	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 describing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	describe	present · progressive	the poet	a forest fire					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent fire=Theme

Option 2

The animal is literally ablaze

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 animal	det
2	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 ablaze	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 ablaze	cop
4	literally	literally	ADV	_	5 ablaze	advmod
5	ablaze	ablaze	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the animal					ablaze, literally property	tree rules

Option 3

The image is without meaning

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 image	det
2	image	image	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 meaning	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 meaning	cop
4	without	without	ADP	_	5 meaning	case
5	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the image					without meaning	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The animal's colouring is likened to flame, conveying power and danger

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 animal	det
2	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 colouring	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 animal	case
4	colouring	colouring	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 likened	nsubj:pass
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 likened	aux:pass
6	likened	liken	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	to	to	PART	_	8 flame	mark
8	flame	flame	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 likened	xcomp
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 conveying	punct
10	conveying	convey	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 likened	advcl
11	power	power	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 conveying	obj
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 danger	cc
13	danger	danger	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 power	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	liken	present · passive		the animal's colouring					tree rules
2	convey	gerund		power and danger					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent power=Topic

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/english/25-reading-poems-meaning-sound-and-pictures/e2/