Exam question 4 · Poetry: rhyme and rhythm
Ascertain the rhyme scheme of a quatrain (a verse of four lines) whose lines terminate in "star", "are", "high" and "sky".
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, lines · What happens: ascertain, terminate, be, scheme, verse · To what, where: rhyme scheme, star, quatrain, four lines
This is exam question 4 of lesson 45 «Poetry: rhyme and rhythm» 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 | Ascertain | ascertain | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 scheme | det |
| 3 | rhyme | rhyme | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 scheme | compound |
| 4 | scheme | scheme | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Ascertain | obj |
| 5 | of | of | ADP | _ | 7 quatrain | case |
| 6 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 7 quatrain | det |
| 7 | quatrain | quatrain | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 scheme | nmod |
| 8 | ( | ( | PUNCT | _ | 10 verse | punct |
| 9 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 10 verse | det |
| 10 | verse | verse | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 quatrain | appos |
| 11 | of | of | ADP | _ | 13 lines | case |
| 12 | four | four | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 13 lines | nummod |
| 13 | lines | line | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 verse | nmod |
| 14 | ) | ) | PUNCT | _ | 10 verse | punct |
| 15 | whose | whose | PRON | Poss=Yes PronType=Rel | 16 lines | nmod:poss |
| 16 | lines | line | NOUN | Number=Plur | 17 terminate | nsubj |
| 17 | terminate | terminate | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 7 quatrain | acl:relcl |
| 18 | in | in | ADP | _ | 20 star | case |
| 19 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 20 star | punct |
| 20 | star | star | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 terminate | obl |
| 21 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 20 star | punct |
| 22 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 24 are | punct |
| 23 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 24 are | punct |
| 24 | are | be | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 1 Ascertain | advcl |
| 25 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 24 are | punct |
| 26 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 28 high | punct |
| 27 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 28 high | punct |
| 28 | high | high | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 1 Ascertain | parataxis |
| 29 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 28 high | punct |
| 30 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 32 sky | cc |
| 31 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 32 sky | punct |
| 32 | sky | sky | NOUN | Number=Sing | 28 high | conj |
| 33 | " | " | PUNCT | _ | 28 high | punct |
| 34 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 1 Ascertain | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ascertain | imperative | you not said here | the rhyme scheme of a quatrain | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | terminate | present | lines | star | vn stop-55.4-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality | ||||
| 3 | be in a quote | present | you not said here | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 4 | scheme | a quatrain | nom scheme «cognition transitive»: of=patient | ||||||
| 5 | verse | four lines | nom verse «communication 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
ABAB
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ABAB | ABAB | PROPN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 2 · ✓ the right answer
AABB
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AABB | AABB | PROPN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 3
ABCD
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ABCD | ABCD | PROPN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
Option 4
ABBA
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ABBA | ABBA | PROPN | 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/english/45-poetry-rhyme-and-rhythm/e4/