Exam question 2 · Poetry: simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration

Select the response that most accurately characterises the line "The city is a beast at night."

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, most, city · What happens: select, characteris, be · To what, where: response, line, beast

This is exam question 2 of lesson 46 «Poetry: simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration» 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	that	that	SCONJ	_	7 characterises	mark
5	most	most	ADJ	Degree=Sup	7 characterises	nsubj
6	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	5 most	advmod
7	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Select	advcl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 line	det
9	line	line	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 characterises	obj
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	15 beast	punct
11	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 city	det
12	city	city	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 beast	nsubj
13	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 beast	cop
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 beast	det
15	beast	beast	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 line	appos
16	at	at	ADP	_	17 night	case
17	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 beast	nmod
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct
19	"	"	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response		vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	characteris	present	most	the line		tree rules
3	is a in a quote	present	the city	a beast	night	tree rules

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 right answer

A metaphor, not intended literally

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 metaphor	det
2	metaphor	metaphor	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 intended	punct
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 intended	advmod
5	intended	intend	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 metaphor	acl
6	literally	literally	ADV	_	5 intended	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not intend	participle		a metaphor not said here				literally property	vn intend-61.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent

Option 2

An instance of onomatopoeia

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 instance	det
2	instance	instance	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 onomatopoeia	case
4	onomatopoeia	onomatopoeia	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 instance	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	instance			onomatopoeia					nom instance «event transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

A simile, owing to its comparison

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 simile	det
2	simile	simile	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 owing	punct
4	owing	owe	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 simile	acl
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 comparison	case
6	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 comparison	nmod:poss
7	comparison	comparison	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 owing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	owe	gerund	a simile not said here					to simile's comparison goal	vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP PP.goal»: agent=Agent to comparison=Goal
2	compare		simile						nom comparison «act transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4

A literal statement of fact

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 statement	det
2	literal	literal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 statement	amod
3	statement	statement	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 fact	case
5	fact	fact	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 statement	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	state			fact					nom statement «communication transitive»: of=patient

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/46-poetry-simile-metaphor-personification-alliteration/e2/