---
title: By what means did the poison reach the twelve murderers, as recounte… — Grimm's Tales, The Raven, part 1: a fa… · tree and pragmatics
description: By what means did the poison reach the twelve murderers, as recounted in the narrative? Exam question 2 of lesson 1928 «Grimm's Tales, The Raven, part 1: a faithful servant saves his master, then a witch's poison kills a horse, a raven and twelve robbers» of the books course of Mova's primary school
---

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# Exam question 2 · Grimm's Tales, The Raven, part 1: a faithful servant saves…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
By what means did the poison reach the twelve murderers, as recounted in the narrative?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** poison · **What happens:** mean, reach, recount · **To what, where:** twelve murderers, narrative

<!-- .vabout -->
This is exam question 2 of lesson 1928 «Grimm's Tales, The Raven, part 1: a faithful servant saves his master, then a witch's poison kills a horse, a raven and twelve robbers» 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/1928-pg7277-part65/#e2).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1928-pg7277-part65:e2:1
# text = By what means did the poison reach the twelve murderers, as recounted in the narrative?
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Rel	7	obl	_	_
3	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	2	acl:relcl	_	_
4	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	7	aux	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	poison	poison	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	reach	reach	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
9	twelve	twelve	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	10	nummod	_	_
10	murderers	murderer	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	13	punct	_	_
12	as	as	SCONJ	IN	_	13	mark	_	_
13	recounted	recount	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	7	conj	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	narrative	narrative	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	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 | **reach** | past · do-support | the poison | the twelve murderers |  |  |  |  | vn body\_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent murderer=Theme |
| 3 | **recount** *speech: other* | participle | the poison *not said here* |  |  | the narrative |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: 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 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
by way of the horse's saddle

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1928-pg7277-part65:e2:o1:1
# text = by way of the horse's saddle
1	by	by	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	horse	horse	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	's	's	PART	POS	_	5	case	_	_
7	saddle	saddle	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
```

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

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
by way of the landlord's wine

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1928-pg7277-part65:e2:o2:1
# text = by way of the landlord's wine
1	by	by	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	landlord	landlord	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	's	's	PART	POS	_	5	case	_	_
7	wine	wine	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
```

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

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
by way of the stirrup cup alone

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1928-pg7277-part65:e2:o3:1
# text = by way of the stirrup cup alone
1	by	by	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	stirrup	stirrup	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	compound	_	_
6	cup	cup	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
7	alone	alone	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	_
```

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

### Option 4 · ✓ the right answer {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
by way of the raven into the broth

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1928-pg7277-part65:e2:o4:1
# text = by way of the raven into the broth
1	by	by	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	way	way	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	raven	raven	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
6	into	into	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	broth	broth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nmod	_	_
```

<!-- .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 Tales, The Raven, part 1: a fa…, exam 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1928-pg7277-part65/e1/)
- next →: [Grimm's Tales, The Raven, part 1: a fa…, exam 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1928-pg7277-part65/e3/)
- ↑ back to [Grimm's Tales, The Raven, part 1: a faithful servant saves his master, then a witch's poison kills a horse, a raven and twelve robbers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1928-pg7277-part65/)