Exam question 4 · Aesop's Fables, The Cat and the Birds: a cat disguised as…

What is the principal moral conveyed by the fable of the North Wind and the Sun?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: principal moral · What happens: be, convey · To what, where: principal moral

This is exam question 4 of lesson 134 «Aesop's Fables, The Cat and the Birds: a cat disguised as a doctor is turned away, and eight more short fables follow» 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 fable	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 fable	det
9	fable	fable	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 conveyed	obl
10	of	of	ADP	_	13 Wind	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 Wind	det
12	North	North	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 Wind	compound
13	Wind	Wind	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 fable	nmod
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 Sun	cc
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 Sun	det
16	Sun	Sun	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 Wind	conj
17	?	?	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 fable of the North Wind and the Sun	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

Strength is greater than kindness

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Strength	strength	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 greater	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 greater	cop
3	greater	great	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
4	than	than	ADP	_	5 kindness	case
5	kindness	kindness	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 greater	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Strength					than kindness; great property	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Persuasion is more effective than force

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Persuasion	persuasion	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 effective	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 effective	cop
3	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	4 effective	advmod
4	effective	effective	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	than	than	ADP	_	6 force	case
6	force	force	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 effective	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Persuasion					than force; effective property	tree rules

Option 3

Patience always wins over hasty anger

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Patience	patience	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 wins	nsubj
2	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	3 wins	advmod
3	wins	win	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	over	over	ADV	_	3 wins	advmod
5	hasty	hasty	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 anger	amod
6	anger	anger	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 wins	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	win over	present	Patience	hasty anger				always, over property	vn lure-59.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anger=Patient

Option 4

Persuasion is more effective than force, as the traveller's own choice to remove his cloak shows clearly

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Persuasion	persuasion	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 effective	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 effective	cop
3	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	4 effective	advmod
4	effective	effective	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	than	than	ADP	_	6 force	case
6	force	force	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 effective	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 choice	punct
8	as	as	ADP	_	13 choice	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 traveller	det
10	traveller	traveller	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 choice	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 traveller	case
12	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 choice	amod
13	choice	choice	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 shows	nsubj
14	to	to	PART	_	15 remove	mark
15	remove	remove	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	13 choice	acl
16	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 cloak	nmod:poss
17	cloak	cloak	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 remove	obj
18	shows	show	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 effective	parataxis
19	clearly	clearly	ADV	_	18 shows	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	present	Persuasion		than force; effective property	tree rules
2	remove	to-infinitive	the traveller's own choice not said here	choice's cloak		vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cloak=Theme
3	show	present	the traveller's own choice		clearly property	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/134-pg11339-part4/e4/