Exam question 3 · Aesop's Fables, The Stag and the Vine, part 18: beasts are…

Which beast, having been informed of the danger of retreat, declined to remain at the scene, and why did it do so?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: beast · What happens: inform, decline, not remain, do · To what, where: beast, scene

This is exam question 3 of lesson 148 «Aesop's Fables, The Stag and the Vine, part 18: beasts are tricked, shot, or betrayed, and each fable teaches a lesson» 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 beast	det
2	beast	beast	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 declined	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 informed	punct
4	having	have	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 informed	aux
5	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	6 informed	aux:pass
6	informed	inform	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 beast	acl:relcl
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 danger	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 danger	det
9	danger	danger	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 informed	obl
10	of	of	ADP	_	11 retreat	case
11	retreat	retreat	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 danger	nmod
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 beast	punct
13	declined	decline	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
14	to	to	PART	_	15 remain	mark
15	remain	remain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	13 declined	xcomp
16	at	at	ADP	_	18 scene	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 scene	det
18	scene	scene	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 remain	obl
19	,	,	PUNCT	_	24 do	punct
20	and	and	CCONJ	_	24 do	cc
21	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	24 do	advmod
22	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	24 do	aux
23	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	24 do	nsubj
24	do	do	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	13 declined	conj
25	so	so	ADV	_	24 do	advmod
26	?	?	PUNCT	_	13 declined	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	inform speech: other	gerund · perfect · passive		which beast not said here		of the danger of retreat	vn tell-37.2 «NP V NP.recipient PP.topic»: of danger=Topic
2	decline	past	which beast				vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
3	not remain	to-infinitive	which beast not said here		the scene		vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at scene=Location
4	do	past · do-support	beast				vn act-114-1 «NP V»: 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

The Fox declined to stay at the scene, because the arrow had revealed a dangerous hunter nearby

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Fox	det
2	Fox	fox	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 declined	nsubj
3	declined	decline	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 stay	mark
5	stay	stay	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 declined	xcomp
6	at	at	ADP	_	8 scene	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 scene	det
8	scene	scene	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 stay	obl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 revealed	punct
10	because	because	SCONJ	_	14 revealed	mark
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 arrow	det
12	arrow	arrow	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 revealed	nsubj
13	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 revealed	aux
14	revealed	reveal	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	3 declined	conj
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 hunter	det
16	dangerous	dangerous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 hunter	amod
17	hunter	hunter	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 revealed	obj
18	nearby	nearby	ADV	_	14 revealed	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	decline	past	the Fox				vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	not stay	to-infinitive	the Fox not said here		the scene		vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at scene=Location
3	reveal	past · perfect	the arrow	a dangerous hunter		nearby property	vn confess-37.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hunter=Topic

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The Lion declined to remain, because a messenger so dispatched revealed a formidable adversary

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Lion	det
2	Lion	Lion	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 declined	nsubj
3	declined	decline	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 remain	mark
5	remain	remain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 declined	xcomp
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 revealed	punct
7	because	because	SCONJ	_	12 revealed	mark
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 messenger	det
9	messenger	messenger	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 revealed	nsubj:pass
10	so	so	ADV	_	12 revealed	advmod
11	dispatched	dispatch	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 revealed	aux:pass
12	revealed	reveal	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 declined	conj
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 adversary	det
14	formidable	formidable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 adversary	amod
15	adversary	adversary	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 revealed	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	decline	past	the Lion		vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	not remain	to-infinitive	the Lion not said here		vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	reveal	past · passive		a messenger	tree rules

Option 3

The Lion stayed to fight

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Lion	det
2	Lion	Lion	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 stayed	nsubj
3	stayed	stay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 fight	mark
5	fight	fight	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 stayed	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	stay	past	the Lion						tree rules
2	fight	to-infinitive	the Lion not said here						vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

The Fox ran away instead

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Fox	det
2	Fox	fox	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 ran	nsubj
3	ran	run	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	away	away	ADV	_	3 ran	advmod
5	instead	instead	ADV	_	3 ran	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	run away	past	the Fox					away, instead property	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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/148-pg11339-part18/e3/