---
title: What circumstance obliged the city to depend upon a single spring? — Russian Folk-Tales, The Little Tsar No… · tree and pragmatics
description: What circumstance obliged the city to depend upon a single spring? Exam question 4 of lesson 1105 «Russian Folk-Tales, The Little Tsar Novishny, part 11: the starling's warnings and the boiling water» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the questi
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1105-pg29672-part11/e4/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [questions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/) / [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/) / [Russian Folk-Tales, The Little Tsar No…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1105-pg29672-part11/) / e4

# Exam question 4 · Russian Folk-Tales, The Little Tsar Novishny, part 11: the…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What circumstance obliged the city to depend upon a single spring?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** circumstance · **What happens:** oblige, depend · **To what, where:** city

<!-- .vabout -->
This is exam question 4 of lesson 1105 «Russian Folk-Tales, The Little Tsar Novishny, part 11: the starling's warnings and the boiling water» 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](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/books/1105-pg29672-part11/#e4).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1105-pg29672-part11:e4:1
# text = What circumstance obliged the city to depend upon a single spring?
1	What	what	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	2	det	_	_
2	circumstance	circumstance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	obliged	oblige	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	to	to	PART	TO	_	7	mark	_	_
7	depend	depend	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	3	advcl	_	_
8	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
9	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	single	single	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	spring	spring	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **oblige** | past | what circumstance | the city |  |  |  |  | vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent city=Patient |
| 2 | **depend** | to-infinitive | what circumstance *not said here* |  |  |  | spring |  | vn rely-70 «NP V PP.theme S\_ING»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .note -->
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 {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
drought

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1105-pg29672-part11:e4:o1:1
# text = drought
1	drought	drought	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the drought that dried all the other springs

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1105-pg29672-part11:e4:o2:1
# text = the drought that dried all the other springs
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	drought	drought	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	that	that	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	4	nsubj	_	_
4	dried	dry	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	_
5	all	all	DET	PDT	PronType=Tot	8	det:predet	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	springs	spring	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **dry** | past | the drought |  |  |  | spring |  | vn other\_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |

### Option 3 · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the absence of any other source of water

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1105-pg29672-part11:e4:o3:1
# text = the absence of any other source of water
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	absence	absence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	6	det	_	_
5	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	source	source	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
8	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **absent** |  |  | any other source of water |  |  |  |  | nom absence «state transitive»: of=patient |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
the lack of a second river

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1105-pg29672-part11:e4:o4:1
# text = the lack of a second river
1	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	lack	lack	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	second	second	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos|NumForm=Word|NumType=Ord	6	amod	_	_
6	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lack** |  |  | a second river |  |  |  |  | nom lack «state transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Russian Folk-Tales, The Little Tsar No…, exam 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1105-pg29672-part11/e3/)
- next →: [Russian Folk-Tales, The Vampire and St…, test 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1107-pg29672-part13/t1/)
- ↑ back to [Russian Folk-Tales, The Little Tsar Novishny, part 11: the starling's warnings and the boiling water](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1105-pg29672-part11/)