Exam question 4 · South American Tales, The Puma and the Monkey, part 62: th…

Why does the monkey decline to walk onward with the puma when the puma threatens him?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: monkey decline, puma · What happens: walk, threaten · To what, where: decline

This is exam question 4 of lesson 1261 «South American Tales, The Puma and the Monkey, part 62: the puma tricks the stag, the stag is framed for theft, the monkey outwits the puma» 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.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	7 walk	advmod
2	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 walk	aux
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 decline	det
4	monkey	monkey	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 decline	compound
5	decline	decline	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 walk	nsubj
6	to	to	PART	_	7 walk	mark
7	walk	walk	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	onward	onward	ADV	_	7 walk	advmod
9	with	with	ADP	_	11 puma	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 puma	det
11	puma	puma	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 walk	obl
12	when	when	SCONJ	_	15 threatens	mark
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 puma	det
14	puma	puma	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 threatens	nsubj
15	threatens	threaten	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 walk	advcl
16	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 threatens	obj
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 walk	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	walk	present · do-support	the monkey decline					with the puma; onward property	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	threaten	present	the puma	decline					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus he=Experiencer

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

Option 1 · ✓ the right answer

Because the puma talks nonsense

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	4 talks	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 puma	det
3	puma	puma	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 talks	nsubj
4	talks	talk	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	nonsense	nonsense	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 talks	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	talk	present	the puma	nonsense					vn compel-59.1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent nonsense=Patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Because he sees the puma's plan and wants to warn the stag at home

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	3 sees	mark
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 sees	nsubj
3	sees	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 puma	det
5	puma	puma	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 plan	nmod:poss
6	's	's	PART	_	5 puma	case
7	plan	plan	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 sees	obj
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 wants	cc
9	wants	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 sees	conj
10	to	to	PART	_	11 warn	mark
11	warn	warn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 wants	xcomp
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 stag	det
13	stag	stag	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 warn	obj
14	at	at	ADP	_	15 home	case
15	home	home	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 warn	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	see	present	he	the puma's plan		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer plan=Stimulus
2	want	present	he not said here			vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
3	warn speech: warn not said to happen	to-infinitive	he not said here	the stag	home	vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent stag=Recipient
4	plan		the puma			nom plan «cognition transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

Because he sees the trick now

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	3 sees	mark
2	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 sees	nsubj
3	sees	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 trick	det
5	trick	trick	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 sees	obj
6	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	3 sees	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	see	present	he	the trick			now		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer trick=Stimulus

Option 4

Because the puma keeps talking nonsense about the sheep and the stag

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	4 keeps	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 puma	det
3	puma	puma	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 keeps	nsubj
4	keeps	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	talking	talk	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 keeps	xcomp
6	nonsense	nonsense	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 talking	obj
7	about	about	ADP	_	9 sheep	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 sheep	det
9	sheep	sheep	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 talking	obl
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 stag	cc
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 stag	det
12	stag	stag	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 sheep	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	present	the puma						tree rules
2	talk	gerund	the puma not said here	nonsense				about the sheep and the stag	tree rules

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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1261-pg3282-part62/e4/