Exam question 4 · Aesop's Fables, The Ass and His Burdens: a clever donkey t…

Articulate the principle conveyed by the closing maxim of the narrative.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: articulate, convey, close · To what, where: principle

This is exam question 4 of lesson 137 «Aesop's Fables, The Ass and His Burdens: a clever donkey tries to cheat his master with salt and sponges» 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	Articulate	articulate	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 principle	det
3	principle	principle	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Articulate	obj
4	conveyed	convey	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 principle	acl
5	by	by	ADP	_	8 maxim	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 maxim	det
7	closing	close	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 maxim	amod
8	maxim	maxim	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 conveyed	obl
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 narrative	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 narrative	det
11	narrative	narrative	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 maxim	nmod
12	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Articulate	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	articulate speech: other	imperative	you not said here	the principle		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent principle=Topic
2	convey	participle		the principle not said here	by the closing maxim of the narrative	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
3	close	gerund				vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=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 · ← Mova's choice

Cheating can work once but fails later

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Cheating	cheating	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 work	nsubj
2	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 work	aux
3	work	work	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	3 work	advmod
5	but	but	CCONJ	_	6 fails	cc
6	fails	fail	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 work	conj
7	later	late	ADV	Degree=Cmp	6 fails	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	work	can	Cheating					once property	vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	fail	present	Cheating not said here					late property	vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

Cheating may succeed once, but a person who keeps cheating will always be caught and punished by others

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Cheating	cheating	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 succeed	nsubj
2	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 succeed	aux
3	succeed	succeed	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	3 succeed	advmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 caught	punct
6	but	but	CCONJ	_	15 caught	cc
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 person	det
8	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 caught	nsubj:pass
9	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 keeps	nsubj
10	keeps	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 person	acl:relcl
11	cheating	cheat	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 keeps	xcomp
12	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	15 caught	aux
13	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	15 caught	advmod
14	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	15 caught	aux:pass
15	caught	catch	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 succeed	parataxis
16	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 punished	cc
17	punished	punish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	15 caught	conj
18	by	by	ADP	_	19 others	case
19	others	other	NOUN	Number=Plur	17 punished	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	succeed	may	Cheating		once property	vn succeed-74-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	keep	present	a person			tree rules
3	cheat	gerund	a person not said here			vn cheat-10.6.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
4	catch	future · passive		a person	always property	vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
5	punish	participle			by others	vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Cheating may succeed once, but it is later punished

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Cheating	cheating	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 succeed	nsubj
2	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 succeed	aux
3	succeed	succeed	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	3 succeed	advmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 punished	punct
6	but	but	CCONJ	_	10 punished	cc
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 punished	nsubj:pass
8	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 punished	aux:pass
9	later	later	ADV	_	10 punished	advmod
10	punished	punish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 succeed	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	succeed	may	Cheating					once property	vn succeed-74-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	punish	present · passive		Cheating				later property	vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 4

Tricks are punished in the end

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Tricks	trick	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 punished	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 punished	aux:pass
3	punished	punish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 end	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 end	det
6	end	end	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 punished	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	punish	present · passive		Tricks			in the end		vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

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/137-pg11339-part7/e4/