Exam question 4 · Aesop's Fables, The Bull and the Calf, part 19: a string o…

What reply did the Snake give the labourer when he tried to make peace?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Snake · What happens: be, give, try, make · To what, where: labourer, peace

This is exam question 4 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	6 give	obj
2	reply	reply	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 give	aux
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 Snake	det
5	Snake	Snake	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 give	nsubj
6	give	give	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 labourer	det
8	labourer	labourer	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 give	obj
9	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	11 tried	advmod
10	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 tried	nsubj
11	tried	try	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 give	advcl
12	to	to	PART	_	13 make	mark
13	make	make	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 tried	xcomp
14	peace	peace	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 make	obj
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 give	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	is a	present			tree rules
2	give	past · do-support	the Snake	the labourer	vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent labourer=Theme
3	try	past	Snake		vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
4	make not said to happen	to-infinitive	Snake not said here	peace	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset peace=Product

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 · ✓ the right answer

He could never be his friend

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 friend	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 friend	aux
3	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	6 friend	advmod
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 friend	cop
5	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 friend	nmod:poss
6	friend	friend	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not is a	could	He	his friend					tree rules

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

He would always hold a grudge

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 hold	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 hold	aux
3	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	4 hold	advmod
4	hold	hold	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 grudge	det
6	grudge	grudge	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 hold	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hold	would	He	a grudge				always property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent grudge=Theme

Option 3

He could never be his friend, since the labourer had hurt him badly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 friend	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 friend	aux
3	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	6 friend	advmod
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 friend	cop
5	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 friend	nmod:poss
6	friend	friend	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 hurt	punct
8	since	since	SCONJ	_	12 hurt	mark
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 labourer	det
10	labourer	labourer	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 hurt	nsubj:pass
11	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 hurt	aux
12	hurt	hurt	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 friend	conj
13	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 hurt	obj
14	badly	badly	ADV	Degree=Pos	12 hurt	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not is a	could	He	his friend					tree rules
2	hurt	past · perfect · passive		the labourer				badly property	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Experiencer he=Result

Option 4

He said it was too late now and they could never be friends again

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 said	nsubj
2	said	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 late	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 late	cop
5	too	too	ADV	_	6 late	advmod
6	late	late	ADV	Degree=Pos	2 said	ccomp
7	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	2 said	advmod
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 friends	cc
9	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 friends	nsubj
10	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 friends	aux
11	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	13 friends	advmod
12	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	13 friends	cop
13	friends	friend	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 said	conj
14	again	again	ADV	_	13 friends	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	past	He		now		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	is	past	it			late property	tree rules
3	not is a	could	they	friends	again		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/149-pg11339-part19/e4/