Exam question 3 · Indian tales, The Monkey and the Shark, part 9: the monkey…

What was the lion's principal motive in killing the donkey, as the monkey reports it?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: principal motive, monkey · What happens: be, kill, report · To what, where: principal motive, donkey

This is exam question 3 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	7 motive	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 motive	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 lion	det
4	lion	lion	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 motive	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 lion	case
6	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 motive	amod
7	motive	motive	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
8	in	in	SCONJ	_	9 killing	mark
9	killing	kill	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 motive	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 donkey	det
11	donkey	donkey	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 killing	obj
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 reports	punct
13	as	as	SCONJ	_	16 reports	mark
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 monkey	det
15	monkey	monkey	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 reports	nsubj
16	reports	report	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 motive	parataxis
17	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 reports	obj
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 motive	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	is a	past		the lion's principal motive	tree rules
2	kill	gerund	the lion's principal motive not said here	the donkey	vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent donkey=Theme
3	report	present	the monkey	donkey	vn prosecute-33.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient

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

He wanted the donkey's heart for food

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 wanted	nsubj
2	wanted	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 donkey	det
4	donkey	donkey	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 heart	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 donkey	case
6	heart	heart	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 wanted	obj
7	for	for	ADP	_	8 food	case
8	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 wanted	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	want	past	He	the donkey's heart				for food	vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot heart=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

He sought the donkey's heart for himself

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 sought	nsubj
2	sought	seek	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 donkey	det
4	donkey	donkey	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 heart	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 donkey	case
6	heart	heart	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 sought	obj
7	for	for	ADP	_	8 himself	case
8	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	2 sought	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	seek	past	He	the donkey's heart				for donkey	vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent heart=Location for himself=Theme

Option 3

He craved her heart for his own meal

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 craved	nsubj
2	craved	crave	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 heart	nmod:poss
4	heart	heart	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 craved	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	8 meal	case
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 meal	nmod:poss
7	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 meal	amod
8	meal	meal	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 craved	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	crave	past	He	her heart				for his own meal	vn want-32.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot heart=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

He wanted the donkey's heart for himself because he thought it was the best part

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 wanted	nsubj
2	wanted	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 donkey	det
4	donkey	donkey	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 heart	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 donkey	case
6	heart	heart	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 wanted	obj
7	for	for	ADP	_	8 himself	case
8	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	2 wanted	obl
9	because	because	SCONJ	_	11 thought	mark
10	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 thought	nsubj
11	thought	think	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 wanted	advcl
12	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 part	nsubj
13	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	16 part	cop
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 part	det
15	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	16 part	amod
16	part	part	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 thought	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	want	past	He	the donkey's heart	for donkey	vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot heart=Theme
2	think speech: other	past	donkey			vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	is a	past	heart	the best part		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/1284-pg3454-part9/e3/