---
title: Of what substance was the badger's vessel formed, and by what proces… — Myths and Legends of China, The Shinan… · tree and pragmatics
description: Of what substance was the badger's vessel formed, and by what process did it fail? Exam question 1 of lesson 1349 «Myths and Legends of China, The Shinansha, or the South Pointing Carriage, part 9: Kotei beats the fog and crosses the river in boats made after a spider's leaf» of the books course of 
---

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# Exam question 1 · Myths and Legends of China, The Shinansha, or the South Po…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Of what substance was the badger's vessel formed, and by what process did it fail?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 2 · **The right answer:** option 1 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** substance, process · **What happens:** be, form, fail · **To what, where:** vessel

<!-- .vabout -->
This is exam question 1 of lesson 1349 «Myths and Legends of China, The Shinansha, or the South Pointing Carriage, part 9: Kotei beats the fog and crosses the river in boats made after a spider's leaf» 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/1349-pg4018-part9/#e1).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1349-pg4018-part9:e1:1
# text = Of what substance was the badger's vessel formed, and by what process did it fail?
1	Of	of	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	9	obl	_	_
3	substance	substance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
4	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	8	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	badger	badger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	's	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	vessel	vessel	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	acl:relcl	_	_
9	formed	form	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
11	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
12	by	by	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	17	obl	_	_
14	process	process	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	nsubj	_	_
15	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
17	fail	fail	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	ccomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	9	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | substance | the badger's vessel |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **form** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **fail** | past · do-support | process |  |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V»: 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 · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
clay, softened by water

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1349-pg4018-part9:e1:o1:1
# text = clay, softened by water
1	clay	clay	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	softened	soften	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	1	acl	_	_
4	by	by	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **soften** | participle |  | clay *not said here* |  |  |  | by water | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |

### Option 2 · ← Mova's choice {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
stone, broken by water

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1349-pg4018-part9:e1:o2:1
# text = stone, broken by water
1	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	1	punct	_	_
3	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	by	by	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **break** | participle |  |  |  |  |  | by water | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by water=Location |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
wood, softened by rain

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1349-pg4018-part9:e1:o3:1
# text = wood, softened by rain
1	wood	wood	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	softened	soften	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	1	acl	_	_
4	by	by	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	rain	rain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **soften** | participle |  | wood *not said here* |  |  |  | by rain | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
clay, hardened by the sun and then softened by the rain

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1349-pg4018-part9:e1:o4:1
# text = clay, hardened by the sun and then softened by the rain
1	clay	clay	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj:pass	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	3	punct	_	_
3	hardened	harden	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
4	by	by	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	sun	sun	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obl	_	_
7	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
8	then	then	ADV	RB	PronType=Dem	9	advmod	_	_
9	softened	soften	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	conj	_	_
10	by	by	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	rain	rain	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **harden** | participle · passive | the sun | clay |  |  |  |  | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent subject=Patient |
| 2 | **soften** | participle | the sun *not said here* |  |  |  | then | by the rain | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |

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**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 -->

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- ← previous: [Myths and Legends of China, The Shinan…, test 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1349-pg4018-part9/t14/)
- next →: [Myths and Legends of China, The Shinan…, exam 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1349-pg4018-part9/e2/)
- ↑ back to [Myths and Legends of China, The Shinansha, or the South Pointing Carriage, part 9: Kotei beats the fog and crosses the river in boats made after a spider's leaf](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1349-pg4018-part9/)