---
title: What obstacle prevented the removal of the iron horse by ordinary men? — Fairy Tales (pg640), The Magic Ring, p… · tree and pragmatics
description: What obstacle prevented the removal of the iron horse by ordinary men? Exam question 4 of lesson 1681 «Fairy Tales (pg640), The Magic Ring, part 5: the youth steals the ring and gets ready to fight the Dragon» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of t
---

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# Exam question 4 · Fairy Tales (pg640), The Magic Ring, part 5: the youth ste…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What obstacle prevented the removal of the iron horse by ordinary men?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 4 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** obstacle · **What happens:** prevent, remove · **To what, where:** removal, iron horse

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This is exam question 4 of lesson 1681 «Fairy Tales (pg640), The Magic Ring, part 5: the youth steals the ring and gets ready to fight the Dragon» 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/1681-pg640-part5/#e4).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1681-pg640-part5:e4:1
# text = What obstacle prevented the removal of the iron horse by ordinary men?
1	What	what	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	2	det	_	_
2	obstacle	obstacle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	prevented	prevent	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	removal	removal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
8	iron	iron	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
10	by	by	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	ordinary	ordinary	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	men	man	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **prevent** | past | what obstacle | the removal of the iron horse |  |  |  | by ordinary men | vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer removal=Theme |
| 2 | **remove** |  |  | the iron horse |  |  |  |  | nom removal «act transitive»: of=patient |

<!-- .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 -->
The horse's excessive weight and its rust

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1681-pg640-part5:e4:o1:1
# text = The horse's excessive weight and its rust
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	's	's	PART	POS	_	2	case	_	_
4	excessive	excessive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	weight	weight	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	8	cc	_	_
7	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	8	nmod:poss	_	_
8	rust	rust	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	conj	_	_
```

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

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Its hidden enchantment

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1681-pg640-part5:e4:o2:1
# text = Its hidden enchantment
1	Its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
2	hidden	hidden	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	enchantment	enchantment	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **enchant** |  | Its *= it* |  |  |  |  |  | nom enchantment «feeling transitive»: poss=agent |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Its excessive weight

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1681-pg640-part5:e4:o3:1
# text = Its excessive weight
1	Its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
2	excessive	excessive	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	weight	weight	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 -->
Its heavy iron

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1681-pg640-part5:e4:o4:1
# text = Its heavy iron
1	Its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	3	nmod:poss	_	_
2	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	iron	iron	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: [Fairy Tales (pg640), The Magic Ring, p…, exam 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1681-pg640-part5/e3/)
- next →: [pg640 tales, The Magic Ring: the Princ…, test 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1682-pg640-part6/t1/)
- ↑ back to [Fairy Tales (pg640), The Magic Ring, part 5: the youth steals the ring and gets ready to fight the Dragon](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1681-pg640-part5/)