---
title: By what means did the children traverse the lake? — Grimm's Fairy Tales, Hansel and Gretel… · tree and pragmatics
description: By what means did the children traverse the lake? Exam question 3 of lesson 1473 «Grimm's Fairy Tales, Hansel and Gretel: the bread house and the oven» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice was wrong.
---

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# Exam question 3 · Grimm's Fairy Tales, Hansel and Gretel: the bread house an…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
By what means did the children traverse the lake?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 4 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** children · **What happens:** mean, do, traverse · **To what, where:** lake

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This is exam question 3 of lesson 1473 «Grimm's Fairy Tales, Hansel and Gretel: the bread house and the oven» 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/1473-pg503-part60/#e3).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1473-pg503-part60:e3:1
# text = By what means did the children traverse the lake?
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	obj	_	_
3	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	_
4	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	children	child	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	traverse	traverse	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	parataxis	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	lake	lake	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
10	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mean** | present |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent |
| 2 | **do** | past |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 3 | **traverse** | present | the children | the lake |  |  |  |  | vn contiguous\_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme lake=Co-Theme |

<!-- .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 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
By a wooden raft

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1473-pg503-part60:e3:o1:1
# text = By a wooden raft
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	4	case	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	wooden	wooden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	raft	raft	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
By riding a large swan across the still water

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1473-pg503-part60:e3:o2:1
# text = By riding a large swan across the still water
1	By	by	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	riding	ride	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	large	large	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	swan	swan	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	across	across	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	still	still	ADV	RB	_	9	advmod	_	_
9	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ride** | gerund |  | a large swan |  | the water |  |  | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent swan=Theme across water=Trajectory |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
By the white duck's back

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1473-pg503-part60:e3:o3:1
# text = By the white duck's back
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	white	white	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	duck	duck	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	's	's	PART	POS	_	4	case	_	_
6	back	back	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

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

### Option 4 · ← Mova's choice {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
By the old stone bridge

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1473-pg503-part60:e3:o4:1
# text = By the old stone bridge
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
3	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
4	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	compound	_	_
5	bridge	bridge	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

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

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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.

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- ← previous: [Grimm's Fairy Tales, Hansel and Gretel…, exam 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1473-pg503-part60/e2/)
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