---
title: What was the cause of the Prince's failure to locate his horse upon… — Blue Fairy Book, The Water-Lily: a cra… · tree and pragmatics
description: What was the cause of the Prince's failure to locate his horse upon the bridge? Exam question 2 of lesson 1456 «Blue Fairy Book, The Water-Lily: a crab becomes a prince again and the witch is punished» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the quest
---

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# Exam question 2 · Blue Fairy Book, The Water-Lily: a crab becomes a prince a…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What was the cause of the Prince's failure to locate his horse upon the bridge?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 2 · **The right answer:** option 1 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** Prince · **What happens:** be, locate, fail · **To what, where:** cause, horse

<!-- .vabout -->
This is exam question 2 of lesson 1456 «Blue Fairy Book, The Water-Lily: a crab becomes a prince again and the witch is punished» 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/1456-pg503-part43/#e2).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1456-pg503-part43:e2:1
# text = What was the cause of the Prince's failure to locate his horse upon the bridge?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	cause	cause	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	Prince	Prince	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	's	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
9	failure	failure	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	locate	locate	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	9	acl	_	_
12	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	13	nmod:poss	_	_
13	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obj	_	_
14	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	bridge	bridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | the cause |  |  |  | of the Prince's failure | tree rules |
| 2 | **locate** | to-infinitive |  | his horse |  |  |  | upon the bridge | tree rules |
| 3 | **fail** |  | the Prince |  |  |  |  |  | nom failure «act intransitive»: poss=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 -->
He had been submerged for upward of ten days

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1456-pg503-part43:e2:o1:1
# text = He had been submerged for upward of ten days
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	submerged	submerge	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	upward	upward	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	ten	ten	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **submerge** | past · perfect · passive |  | He |  |  |  | for upward of ten days | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient |

### Option 2 · ← Mova's choice {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He had been submerged for upward of ten days and the horse had long since fled

<!-- fold The tree, 16 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1456-pg503-part43:e2:o2:1
# text = He had been submerged for upward of ten days and the horse had long since fled
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	submerged	submerge	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	upward	upward	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
7	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
8	ten	ten	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	9	nummod	_	_
9	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	6	nmod	_	_
10	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	12	det	_	_
12	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	nsubj	_	_
13	had	have	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	conj	_	_
14	long	long	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	13	advmod	_	_
15	since	since	ADV	RB	_	16	advmod	_	_
16	fled	flee	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	13	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **submerge** | past · perfect · passive |  | He |  |  |  | for upward of ten days | vn other\_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient |
| 2 | **have** | past | the horse |  |  |  |  | long *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **flee** | participle | the horse *not said here* |  |  |  |  | since *property* | vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He had been drowned for ten days

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1456-pg503-part43:e2:o3:1
# text = He had been drowned for ten days
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj:pass	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
3	been	be	AUX	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	4	aux:pass	_	_
4	drowned	drown	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	0	root	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	ten	ten	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **drown** | past · perfect · passive |  | He |  |  | day |  | vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
He had been underwater for ten days

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1456-pg503-part43:e2:o4:1
# text = He had been underwater for ten days
1	He	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	had	have	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	been	be	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
4	underwater	underwater	ADV	RB	_	3	advmod	_	_
5	for	for	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	ten	ten	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	7	nummod	_	_
7	days	day	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **be** | past · perfect | He |  |  |  | day | underwater *property* | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

<!-- 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 -->

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- ← previous: [Blue Fairy Book, The Water-Lily: a cra…, exam 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1456-pg503-part43/e1/)
- next →: [Blue Fairy Book, The Water-Lily: a cra…, exam 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1456-pg503-part43/e3/)
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