Exam question 3 · Old Indian Legends, Dance in a Buffalo Skull: mice feast u…

What is the reason the mice give for feeling secure in the darkness of the plain?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: reason, mice · What happens: be, give, feel · To what, where: reason

This is exam question 3 of lesson 1272 «Old Indian Legends, Dance in a Buffalo Skull: mice feast until fiery eyes creep into their skull» 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reason	det
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 mice	det
6	mice	mouse	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 give	nsubj
7	give	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl:relcl
8	for	for	SCONJ	_	9 feeling	mark
9	feeling	feel	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 give	advcl
10	secure	secure	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 feeling	xcomp
11	in	in	ADP	_	13 darkness	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 darkness	det
13	darkness	darkness	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 feeling	obl
14	of	of	ADP	_	16 plain	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 plain	det
16	plain	plain	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 darkness	nmod
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the reason			tree rules
2	give	present	the mice	the reason not said here		vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
3	feel	gerund	the mice not said here		in the darkness of the plain; secure property	vn seem-109-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Theme in darkness=Attribute

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 · ← Mova's choice

They feel the darkness covers them from the wolves and owls

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 feel	nsubj
2	feel	feel	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 darkness	det
4	darkness	darkness	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 covers	nsubj
5	covers	cover	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 feel	ccomp
6	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 covers	obj
7	from	from	ADP	_	9 wolves	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 wolves	det
9	wolves	wolf	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 covers	obl
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 owls	cc
11	owls	owl	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 wolves	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	feel	present	They						vn conjecture-29.5-2 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	cover	present	the darkness	them = they		the wolves and owls			vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme they=Destination

Option 2

The moon hides them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 moon	det
2	moon	moon	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 hides	nsubj
3	hides	hide	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 hides	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hide	present	the moon	them = they					vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient

Option 3

They say the dark keeps them hidden from harm

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 say	nsubj
2	say	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 dark	det
4	dark	dark	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 keeps	nsubj
5	keeps	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 say	ccomp
6	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 keeps	obj
7	hidden	hide	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 keeps	xcomp
8	from	from	ADP	_	9 harm	case
9	harm	harm	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 hidden	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	They			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	keep	present	the dark	them = they		tree rules
3	hide	participle	them = they not said here		harm	vn concealment-16-1 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent from harm=Beneficiary

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

They believe the dark shelters them from all dangers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 believe	nsubj
2	believe	believe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 dark	det
4	dark	dark	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 shelters	nsubj
5	shelters	shelter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 believe	ccomp
6	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 shelters	obj
7	from	from	ADP	_	9 dangers	case
8	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	9 dangers	det
9	dangers	danger	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 shelters	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	believe	present	They						vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
2	shelter	present	the dark	them = they		all dangers			vn concealment-16 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent they=Patient from danger=Beneficiary

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/1272-pg338-part9/e3/