---
title: By what method did the youth instruct the king to distinguish the th… — Hungarian Fairy Tales, The Clever Yout… · tree and pragmatics
description: By what method did the youth instruct the king to distinguish the three foals according to the time of their birth? Exam question 2 of lesson 672 «Hungarian Fairy Tales, The Clever Youth, part 12: the youth solves three riddles and outwits the Sultan's witch» of the books course of Mova's primary sc
---

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# Exam question 2 · Hungarian Fairy Tales, The Clever Youth, part 12: the yout…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
By what method did the youth instruct the king to distinguish the three foals according to the time of their birth?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** method, youth · **What happens:** do, instruct, distinguish, accord · **To what, where:** king, three foals

<!-- .vabout -->
This is exam question 2 of lesson 672 «Hungarian Fairy Tales, The Clever Youth, part 12: the youth solves three riddles and outwits the Sultan's witch» 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/672-pg2435-part12/#e2).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:672-pg2435-part12:e2:1
# text = By what method did the youth instruct the king to distinguish the three foals according to the time of their birth?
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	4	obj	_	_
3	method	method	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	did	do	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	youth	youth	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	7	nsubj	_	_
7	instruct	instruct	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	king	king	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	to	to	PART	TO	_	11	mark	_	_
11	distinguish	distinguish	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	7	advcl	_	_
12	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	14	det	_	_
13	three	three	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	14	nummod	_	_
14	foals	foal	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obj	_	_
15	according	accord	VERB	VBG	ExtPos=ADP|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	18	case	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	fixed	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	18	det	_	_
18	time	time	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
19	of	of	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
20	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	21	nmod:poss	_	_
21	birth	birth	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	18	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
22	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **do** | past | method |  |  |  |  |  | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality |
| 2 | **instruct** *speech: other* | present | the youth |  | the king |  |  |  | vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent king=Recipient |
| 3 | **distinguish** | to-infinitive | the youth *not said here* | the three foals |  |  | time |  | vn distinguish-23.5-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Attribute foal=Theme |
| 4 | **accord** | gerund |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn future\_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: 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 · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
by feeding them oats, wheat, and barley from identical troughs

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:672-pg2435-part12:e2:o1:1
# text = by feeding them oats, wheat, and barley from identical troughs
1	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	feeding	feed	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
3	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	oats	oat	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	6	punct	_	_
6	wheat	wheat	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	9	punct	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	9	cc	_	_
9	barley	barley	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	conj	_	_
10	from	from	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	identical	identical	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	troughs	trough	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **feed** | gerund |  | them *= they* |  | identical troughs |  |  | vn feeding-39.7 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent they=Recipient oat=Theme |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
by counting their spots at dawn

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:672-pg2435-part12:e2:o2:1
# text = by counting their spots at dawn
1	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	counting	count	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
3	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	spots	spot	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obj	_	_
5	at	at	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	dawn	dawn	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **count** | gerund |  | their spots |  |  | dawn |  | vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spot=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
by weighing them on a scale

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:672-pg2435-part12:e2:o3:1
# text = by weighing them on a scale
1	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	weighing	weigh	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
3	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	obj	_	_
4	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	scale	scale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **weigh** | gerund |  | them *= they* |  | a scale |  |  | vn register-54.1-2-1 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Theme they=Value |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
by measuring their height against the wall

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:672-pg2435-part12:e2:o4:1
# text = by measuring their height against the wall
1	by	by	SCONJ	IN	_	2	mark	_	_
2	measuring	measure	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
3	their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	4	nmod:poss	_	_
4	height	height	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
5	against	against	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	wall	wall	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **measure** | gerund |  | their height |  |  |  | against the wall | vn register-54.1-2-1 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Theme height=Value |

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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: [Hungarian Fairy Tales, The Clever Yout…, exam 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/672-pg2435-part12/e1/)
- next →: [Hungarian Fairy Tales, The Clever Yout…, exam 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/672-pg2435-part12/e3/)
- ↑ back to [Hungarian Fairy Tales, The Clever Youth, part 12: the youth solves three riddles and outwits the Sultan's witch](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/672-pg2435-part12/)