Exam question 3 · Aesop's Fables, The Bull and the Calf, part 19: a string o…

What was the principal consequence of the Woodman's request upon the Trees?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: Woodman · What happens: be, request · To what, where: principal consequence

This is exam question 3 of lesson 149 «Aesop's Fables, The Bull and the Calf, part 19: a string of short fables where clever and foolish creatures and people get their just deserts» 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	5 consequence	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 consequence	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 consequence	det
4	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 consequence	amod
5	consequence	consequence	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	10 request	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Woodman	det
8	Woodman	Woodman	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 request	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 Woodman	case
10	request	request	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 consequence	nmod
11	upon	upon	ADP	_	13 Trees	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 Trees	det
13	Trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 request	nmod
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 consequence	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past		the principal consequence				of the Woodman's request upon the Trees	tree rules
2	request		the Woodman					upon the Trees	nom request «communication transitive»: poss=agent upon=obl

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

They were sold

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 sold	nsubj:pass
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 sold	aux:pass
3	sold	sell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sell	past · passive		They					vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

They were felled by his axe

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 felled	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 felled	aux:pass
3	felled	fell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	6 axe	case
5	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 axe	nmod:poss
6	axe	axe	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 felled	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fell	past · passive		They				by his axe	tree rules

Option 3

They lost their leaves and died

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 lost	nsubj
2	lost	lose	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 leaves	nmod:poss
4	leaves	leaf	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 lost	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 died	cc
6	died	die	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 lost	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lose	past	They	their leaves					vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leaf=Eventuality
2	die	past	They not said here						vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

Option 4

They were burned

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 burned	nsubj:pass
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 burned	aux:pass
3	burned	burn	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	burn	past · passive		They					vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: subject=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/149-pg11339-part19/e3/