---
title: By what quality were the sea-dwellers' voices distinguished from tho… — Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid, part… · tree and pragmatics
description: By what quality were the sea-dwellers' voices distinguished from those of human beings? Exam question 1 of lesson 877 «Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid, part 88: the mermaid saves the drowning prince from the storm» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/877-pg27200-part88/e1/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [questions](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/) / [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/) / [Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid, part…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/877-pg27200-part88/) / e1

# Exam question 1 · Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid, part 88: the mermaid save…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
By what quality were the sea-dwellers' voices distinguished from those of human beings?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **What happens:** be, distinguish · **To what, where:** quality voices

<!-- .vabout -->
This is exam question 1 of lesson 877 «Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid, part 88: the mermaid saves the drowning prince from the storm» 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/877-pg27200-part88/#e1).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:877-pg27200-part88:e1:1
# text = By what quality were the sea-dwellers' voices distinguished from those of human beings?
1	By	by	ADP	IN	_	2	case	_	_
2	what	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	0	root	_	_
3	quality	quality	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	compound	_	_
4	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	10	cop	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
6	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	6	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	dwellers	dweller	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
9	'	's	PART	POS	_	8	case	_	_
10	voices	voice	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	nsubj	_	_
11	distinguished	distinguish	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	10	acl	_	_
12	from	from	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	those	that	PRON	DT	Number=Plur|PronType=Dem	11	obl	_	_
14	of	of	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	16	amod	_	_
16	beings	being	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	13	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	2	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | past |  | the sea dwellers's quality voices |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **distinguish** | participle |  | the sea dwellers's quality voices *not said here* |  |  |  | from the sea dwellers's quality voices | vn distinguish-23.5-1 «NP V NP.theme PP.co-theme»: agent=Agent from that=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 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They surpassed every human voice in beauty and in strength together

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:877-pg27200-part88:e1:o1:1
# text = They surpassed every human voice in beauty and in strength together
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	surpassed	surpass	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	5	det	_	_
4	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	beauty	beauty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
10	strength	strength	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	conj	_	_
11	together	together	ADV	RB	_	2	advmod	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **surpass** | past | They | every human voice |  |  |  | in beauty and strength; together *property* | vn exceed-90 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Pivot voice=Theme in beauty=Attribute |

### Option 2 · ✓ the right answer {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They surpassed any human voice in beauty

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:877-pg27200-part88:e1:o2:1
# text = They surpassed any human voice in beauty
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	surpassed	surpass	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	5	det	_	_
4	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	beauty	beauty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **surpass** | past | They | any human voice |  |  |  | in beauty | vn exceed-90 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Pivot voice=Theme in beauty=Attribute |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Their song was sweeter than all voices

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:877-pg27200-part88:e1:o3:1
# text = Their song was sweeter than all voices
1	Their	their	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Plur|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	2	nmod:poss	_	_
2	song	song	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	4	cop	_	_
4	sweeter	sweet	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	0	root	_	_
5	than	than	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	7	det	_	_
7	voices	voice	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is** | past | Their song |  |  |  |  | than all voices; sweet *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **sing** |  | Their *= they* |  |  |  |  |  | nom song «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
They surpassed any human voice in beauty, which was strange and unknown to sailors

<!-- fold The tree, 14 words -->
```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:877-pg27200-part88:e1:o4:1
# text = They surpassed any human voice in beauty, which was strange and unknown to sailors
1	They	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	2	nsubj	_	_
2	surpassed	surpass	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
3	any	any	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	5	det	_	_
4	human	human	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	voice	voice	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obj	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	beauty	beauty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	11	nsubj	_	_
10	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	cop	_	_
11	strange	strange	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	acl:relcl	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	unknown	unknown	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	conj	_	_
14	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
15	sailors	sailor	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	2	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **surpass** | past | They | any human voice |  |  |  | to sailors; in beauty | vn exceed-90 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Pivot voice=Theme in beauty=Attribute |
| 2 | **is** | past | beauty |  |  |  |  | strange *property* | tree rules |
| 3 | **be** |  | beauty *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

<!-- div src -->

**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.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid, part…, test 14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/877-pg27200-part88/t14/)
- next →: [Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid, part…, exam 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/877-pg27200-part88/e2/)
- ↑ back to [Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid, part 88: the mermaid saves the drowning prince from the storm](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/877-pg27200-part88/)