Exam question 4 · Aesop's Fables, The Fox and the Grapes: a hungry Fox jumps…

What is the principal moral conveyed by the narrative of the Fox and the Grapes?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: principal moral · What happens: be, convey · To what, where: principal moral

This is exam question 4 of lesson 133 «Aesop's Fables, The Fox and the Grapes: a hungry Fox jumps for grapes he cannot reach and walks off, calling them sour» 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	5 moral	det
4	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 moral	amod
5	moral	moral	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
6	conveyed	convey	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 moral	acl
7	by	by	ADP	_	9 narrative	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 narrative	det
9	narrative	narrative	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 conveyed	obl
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 Fox	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 Fox	det
12	Fox	fox	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 narrative	nmod
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 Grapes	cc
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 Grapes	det
15	Grapes	Grape	PROPN	Number=Plur	9 narrative	conj
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the principal moral						tree rules
2	convey	participle		the principal moral not said here				by the narrative of the Fox and the Grapes	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent

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

That people who cannot reach their goals should try harder and never give up, no matter how many times they fail.

The tree, 22 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	2 people	det
2	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 try	nsubj
3	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 reach	nsubj
4	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 reach	aux
5	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	6 reach	advmod
6	reach	reach	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 people	acl:relcl
7	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 goals	nmod:poss
8	goals	goal	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 reach	obj
9	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 try	aux
10	try	try	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
11	harder	hard	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	10 try	xcomp
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 give	cc
13	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	14 give	advmod
14	give	give	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 try	conj
15	up	up	ADP	_	14 give	compound:prt
16	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 matter	punct
17	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	18 matter	det
18	matter	matter	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 give	obl
19	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	20 many	advmod
20	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	21 times	amod
21	times	time	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 give	obl:unmarked
22	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	23 fail	nsubj
23	fail	fail	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	21 times	acl:relcl
24	.	.	PUNCT	_	10 try	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	not reach	can	that people	people's goals			vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent goal=Theme
2	try	should	that people			hard property	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer
3	not give up	infinitive	that people not said here	no matter	time		vn resign-10.11-2 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	fail	present	people	many times not said here			vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent time=Eventuality

Option 2

That people should always share their food with others.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	2 people	det
2	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 share	nsubj
3	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 share	aux
4	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	5 share	advmod
5	share	share	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 food	nmod:poss
7	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 share	obj
8	with	with	ADP	_	9 others	case
9	others	other	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 share	obl
10	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 share	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	share	should	that people	people's food				with others; always property	tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

That people often belittle what they cannot obtain, in order to spare their own pride.

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	2 people	det
2	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 belittle	nsubj
3	often	often	ADV	_	4 belittle	advmod
4	belittle	belittle	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	9 obtain	obj
6	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 obtain	nsubj
7	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 obtain	aux
8	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	9 obtain	advmod
9	obtain	obtain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 belittle	ccomp
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 spare	punct
11	in	in	SCONJ	ExtPos=SCONJ	14 spare	mark
12	order	order	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 in	fixed
13	to	to	PART	_	14 spare	mark
14	spare	spare	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 obtain	conj
15	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 pride	nmod:poss
16	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 pride	amod
17	pride	pride	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 spare	obj
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 belittle	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	belittle	present	that people		often property	tree rules
2	not obtain	can	people			vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset what=Theme
3	spare	to-infinitive	people not said here	people's own pride		vn bill-54.5 «NP V NP NP.asset»: agent=Agent pride=Asset
4	pride		people			nom pride «feeling transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4

That honesty is always the best policy, even when a person is embarrassed by their own failures in front of others.

The tree, 21 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	2 honesty	det
2	honesty	honesty	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 policy	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 policy	cop
4	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	7 policy	advmod
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 policy	det
6	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	7 policy	amod
7	policy	policy	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 embarrassed	punct
9	even	even	ADV	_	14 embarrassed	advmod
10	when	when	SCONJ	_	14 embarrassed	mark
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 person	det
12	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 embarrassed	nsubj:pass
13	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 embarrassed	aux:pass
14	embarrassed	embarrass	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 policy	conj
15	by	by	ADP	_	18 failures	case
16	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	18 failures	nmod:poss
17	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 failures	amod
18	failures	failure	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 embarrassed	obl
19	in	in	ADP	_	20 front	case
20	front	front	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 embarrassed	obl
21	of	of	ADP	_	22 others	case
22	others	other	NOUN	Number=Plur	20 front	nmod
23	.	.	PUNCT	_	7 policy	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	is a	present	that honesty	the best policy		always property	tree rules
2	embarrass	present · passive	their own failures	a person	front of others		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus subject=Experiencer
3	fail		their = they				nom failure «act intransitive»: poss=agent

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.

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