Exam question 2 · Aesop's Fables, The Ass and the Lap-dog: the jealous Ass w…

Which quality does the Bramble attribute to poverty, in contrast to the Fir's boast of usefulness?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: quality, usefulness · What happens: do, boast · To what, where: Bramble attribute

This is exam question 2 of lesson 136 «Aesop's Fables, The Ass and the Lap-dog: the jealous Ass wrecks the master's dinner and is beaten» 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	Which	which	DET	PronType=Int	2 quality	det
2	quality	quality	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 does	nsubj
3	does	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 attribute	det
5	Bramble	Bramble	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 attribute	compound
6	attribute	attribute	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 does	obj
7	to	to	ADP	_	8 poverty	case
8	poverty	poverty	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 does	obl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 contrast	punct
10	in	in	ADP	_	11 contrast	case
11	contrast	contrast	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 poverty	appos
12	to	to	ADP	_	16 boast	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 Fir	det
14	Fir	Fir	PROPN	Number=Sing	16 boast	nmod:poss
15	's	's	PART	_	14 Fir	case
16	boast	boast	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 contrast	nmod
17	of	of	ADP	_	18 usefulness	case
18	usefulness	usefulness	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 boast	nmod
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 does	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	present	which quality	the Bramble attribute				to poverty	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent attribute=Eventuality
2	boast		usefulness						nom boast «communication intransitive»: of=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 · ✓ the right answer

Freedom from care

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Freedom	freedom	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	from	from	ADP	_	3 care	case
3	care	care	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Freedom	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2

Freedom from pride

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Freedom	freedom	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	from	from	ADP	_	3 pride	case
3	pride	pride	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Freedom	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Freedom from all care and from the burden of owning fine things

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Freedom	freedom	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	from	from	ADP	_	4 care	case
3	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	4 care	det
4	care	care	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Freedom	nmod
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 burden	cc
6	from	from	ADP	_	8 burden	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 burden	det
8	burden	burden	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 care	conj
9	of	of	SCONJ	_	10 owning	mark
10	owning	own	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 burden	acl
11	fine	fine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 things	amod
12	things	thing	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 owning	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	own	gerund	the burden not said here	fine things					vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot thing=Theme

Option 4

Freedom from all care, since the poor have nothing to lose

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Freedom	freedom	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 have	nsubj
2	from	from	ADP	_	4 care	case
3	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	4 care	det
4	care	care	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Freedom	nmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 have	punct
6	since	since	SCONJ	_	9 have	mark
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 poor	det
8	poor	poor	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 have	nsubj
9	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	9 have	obj
11	to	to	PART	_	12 lose	mark
12	lose	lose	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 nothing	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	Freedom from all care	nothing					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient
2	lose	to-infinitive	Freedom from all care not said here	nothing not said here					vn succeed-74-3-1 «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/136-pg11339-part6/e2/