Exam question 1 · Aesop's Fables, The Blacksmith and His Dog: the lazy dog i…

Which of the following best describes the principal moral conveyed by the fable of the Blacksmith and His Dog?

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

This is exam question 1 of lesson 141 «Aesop's Fables, The Blacksmith and His Dog: the lazy dog is fed only when the work stops» 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	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 describes	obj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 best	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 best	det
4	following	follow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 best	case
5	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	6 describes	nmod
6	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 moral	det
8	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 moral	amod
9	moral	moral	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 describes	obj
10	conveyed	convey	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 moral	acl
11	by	by	ADP	_	13 fable	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 fable	det
13	fable	fable	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 conveyed	obl
14	of	of	ADP	_	16 Blacksmith	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 Blacksmith	det
16	Blacksmith	Blacksmith	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 fable	nmod
17	and	and	CCONJ	_	19 Dog	cc
18	His	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	19 Dog	nmod:poss
19	Dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 Blacksmith	conj
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 describes	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	describe	present	the principal moral	of the best	tree rules
3	convey	participle	the principal moral not said here	by the fable of the Blacksmith and His Dog	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

Idleness in work deserves to be unrewarded, and no master should feed a dog that only sleeps all day

The tree, 19 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Idleness	idleness	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 deserves	nsubj
2	in	in	ADP	_	3 work	case
3	work	work	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Idleness	nmod
4	deserves	deserve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	7 unrewarded	mark
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 unrewarded	aux:pass
7	unrewarded	unreward	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 deserves	xcomp
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 feed	punct
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 feed	cc
10	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	11 master	det
11	master	master	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 feed	nsubj
12	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 feed	aux
13	feed	feed	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 deserves	conj
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 dog	det
15	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 feed	obj
16	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	18 sleeps	nsubj
17	only	only	ADV	_	18 sleeps	advmod
18	sleeps	sleep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 dog	acl:relcl
19	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	20 day	det
20	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 sleeps	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	to whom	when	roles by
1	deserve	present	Idleness in work			tree rules
2	unreward	to-infinitive · passive	Idleness in work not said here			tree rules
3	feed	should	no master	a dog		vn feeding-39.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dog=Recipient
4	sleep	present	a dog		day	vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

Idleness in work deserves to be unrewarded, as the fable of the smith's dog teaches every servant

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Idleness	idleness	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 deserves	nsubj
2	in	in	ADP	_	3 work	case
3	work	work	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Idleness	nmod
4	deserves	deserve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	7 unrewarded	mark
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 unrewarded	aux:pass
7	unrewarded	unreward	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 deserves	xcomp
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 teaches	punct
9	as	as	SCONJ	_	17 teaches	mark
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 fable	det
11	fable	fable	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 teaches	nsubj
12	of	of	ADP	_	16 dog	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 smith	det
14	smith	smith	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 dog	nmod:poss
15	's	's	PART	_	14 smith	case
16	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 fable	nmod
17	teaches	teach	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 deserves	conj
18	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	19 servant	det
19	servant	servant	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 teaches	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	deserve	present	Idleness in work		tree rules
2	unreward	to-infinitive · passive	Idleness in work not said here		tree rules
3	teach speech: other	present	the fable of the smith's dog	every servant	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent servant=Recipient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Idleness in work deserves to be unrewarded

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Idleness	idleness	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 deserves	nsubj
2	in	in	ADP	_	3 work	case
3	work	work	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Idleness	nmod
4	deserves	deserve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	7 unrewarded	mark
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 unrewarded	aux:pass
7	unrewarded	unreward	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 deserves	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	deserve	present	Idleness in work						tree rules
2	unreward	to-infinitive · passive	Idleness in work not said here						tree rules

Option 4

Diligence in work deserves to be rewarded

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Diligence	diligence	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 deserves	nsubj
2	in	in	ADP	_	3 work	case
3	work	work	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Diligence	nmod
4	deserves	deserve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	7 rewarded	mark
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 rewarded	aux:pass
7	rewarded	reward	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 deserves	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	deserve	present	Diligence in work						tree rules
2	reward	to-infinitive · passive	Diligence in work not said here						vn equip-13.4.2-1 «NP V NP.recipient»

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/141-pg11339-part11/e1/