Exam question 4 · Aesop's Fables, The Lion and the Ass, part 14: a boastful…

What opinion does the Tanner express concerning the material for the fortifications?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: opinion, Tanner express · What happens: do, concern · To what, where: Tanner express, material

This is exam question 4 of lesson 144 «Aesop's Fables, The Lion and the Ass, part 14: a boastful Ass, a robbed Prophet, and other clever beasts» 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	3 does	obj
2	opinion	opinion	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 express	det
5	Tanner	Tanner	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 express	compound
6	express	express	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 does	obj
7	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 express	acl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 material	det
9	material	material	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 concerning	obj
10	for	for	ADP	_	12 fortifications	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 fortifications	det
12	fortifications	fortification	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 concerning	obl
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 does	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	present	opinion	the Tanner express					tree rules
2	concern	gerund	the Tanner express not said here	the material				for the fortifications	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus material=Experiencer

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 there is nothing comparable to leather for building any kind of strong defences

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 is	nsubj
2	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	3 is	expl
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 comparable	cop
4	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	5 comparable	nsubj
5	comparable	comparable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 leather	mark
7	leather	leather	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 comparable	xcomp
8	for	for	SCONJ	_	9 building	mark
9	building	build	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 leather	advcl
10	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	11 kind	det
11	kind	kind	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 building	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 defences	case
13	strong	strong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 defences	amod
14	defences	defence	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 kind	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	present	nothing		comparable property	tree rules
2	leather	to-infinitive	nothing not said here			tree rules
3	build	gerund	nothing not said here	any kind of strong defences		vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset kind=Product

Option 2

That iron walls beat every leather hide

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 walls	nsubj
2	iron	iron	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 walls	compound
3	walls	wall	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 beat	nsubj
4	beat	beat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	7 hide	det
6	leather	leather	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 hide	compound
7	hide	hide	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 beat	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wall		That						tree rules
2	beat	present	iron walls	every leather hide					vn sound_emission-43.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location hide=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

That there is nothing comparable to leather

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 is	nsubj
2	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	3 is	expl
3	is	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	3 is	nsubj
5	comparable	comparable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 nothing	amod
6	to	to	PART	_	7 leather	mark
7	leather	leather	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 comparable	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	be	present	That			there			vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	leather	to-infinitive	That not said here						tree rules

Option 4

That wood is far better than any leather

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	2 wood	det
2	wood	wood	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 better	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 better	cop
4	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	5 better	advmod
5	better	good	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
6	than	than	ADP	_	8 leather	case
7	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	8 leather	det
8	leather	leather	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 better	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	that wood					than any leather; far, good property	tree rules

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/144-pg11339-part14/e4/