---
title: What was the nature of the dragon's mother as described upon Stan's… — Roumanian Fairy Tales, Stan Bolovan, p… · tree and pragmatics
description: What was the nature of the dragon's mother as described upon Stan's arrival? Exam question 4 of lesson 1769 «Roumanian Fairy Tales, Stan Bolovan, part 20: Stan wants children, gets a hundred, and meets a dragon» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of
---

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# Exam question 4 · Roumanian Fairy Tales, Stan Bolovan, part 20: Stan wants c…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What was the nature of the dragon's mother as described upon Stan's arrival?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** nature, Stan · **What happens:** be, describe, arrive · **To what, where:** mother

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This is exam question 4 of lesson 1769 «Roumanian Fairy Tales, Stan Bolovan, part 20: Stan wants children, gets a hundred, and meets a 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/1769-pg641-part20/#e4).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1769-pg641-part20:e4:1
# text = What was the nature of the dragon's mother as described upon Stan's arrival?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	0	root	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	1	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	nature	nature	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nsubj	_	_
5	of	of	ADP	IN	_	9	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	's	's	PART	POS	_	7	case	_	_
9	mother	mother	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
10	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
11	described	describe	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	9	acl	_	_
12	upon	upon	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
13	Stan	Stan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	15	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	's	's	PART	POS	_	13	case	_	_
15	arrival	arrival	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past | the nature of the dragon's mother |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **describe** | participle |  | the dragon's mother *not said here* |  |  |  | upon Stan's arrival | vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S\_ING»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **arrive** |  | Stan |  |  |  |  |  | nom arrival «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 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She was ancient

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1769-pg641-part20:e4:o1:1
# text = She was ancient
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	ancient	ancient	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | She |  |  |  |  | ancient *property* | tree rules |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She was very old

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1769-pg641-part20:e4:o2:1
# text = She was very old
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	very	very	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | She |  |  |  |  | old *property* | tree rules |

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

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She was as old as time itself

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1769-pg641-part20:e4:o3:1
# text = She was as old as time itself
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
3	as	as	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
4	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	0	root	_	_
5	as	as	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
7	itself	itself	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Emp|Reflex=Yes	6	nmod:unmarked	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | She |  |  |  | time | old *property* | tree rules |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
She was older than the hills

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1769-pg641-part20:e4:o4:1
# text = She was older than the hills
1	She	she	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
2	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	cop	_	_
3	older	old	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
4	than	than	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	hills	hill	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | She |  |  |  |  | than the hills; old *property* | tree rules |

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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: [Roumanian Fairy Tales, Stan Bolovan, p…, exam 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1769-pg641-part20/e3/)
- next →: [Fairy Tales, Stan and the Dragon, part…, test 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1770-pg641-part21/t1/)
- ↑ back to [Roumanian Fairy Tales, Stan Bolovan, part 20: Stan wants children, gets a hundred, and meets a dragon](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1769-pg641-part20/)