Exam question 2 · Indian tales, The Monkey and the Shark, part 9: the monkey…

By what means did the donkey repel the lion during the first encounter?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: donkey · What happens: mean, repel · To what, where: lion

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1284 «Indian tales, The Monkey and the Shark, part 9: the monkey tells the shark how a greedy donkey was tricked by a hare and a lion» 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	By	by	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 repel	obl
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 repel	aux
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 donkey	det
6	donkey	donkey	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 repel	nsubj
7	repel	repel	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 lion	det
9	lion	lion	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 repel	obj
10	during	during	ADP	_	13 encounter	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 encounter	det
12	first	first	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	13 encounter	amod
13	encounter	encounter	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 repel	obl
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 repel	punct

#	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	repel	past · do-support	the donkey	the lion			during the first encounter		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus lion=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

By butting and stamping him

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 butting	mark
2	butting	butt	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 stamping	cc
4	stamping	stamp	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 butting	conj
5	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 stamping	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	butt	gerund							vn bump-18.4-1 «NP V together»: agent=Theme
2	stamp	gerund		him = he					vn image_impression-25.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent he=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

By kicking and biting him

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 kicking	mark
2	kicking	kick	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 biting	cc
4	biting	bite	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 kicking	conj
5	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 biting	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	kick	gerund							vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient
2	bite	gerund		him = he					vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient

Option 3

By kicking and clawing him

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 kicking	mark
2	kicking	kick	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 clawing	cc
4	clawing	claw	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 kicking	conj
5	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 clawing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	kick	gerund							vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient
2	claw	gerund		him = he					vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient

Option 4

By running

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 running	mark
2	running	run	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	run	gerund							vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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/1284-pg3454-part9/e2/