Exam question 4 · Aesop's Fables, The Farmer and the Rooks, part 2: the Farm…

What quality of men did the Rook identify as fatal to their companions?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: quality, Rook · What happens: do, identify

This is exam question 4 of lesson 151 «Aesop's Fables, The Farmer and the Rooks, part 2: the Farmer tricks the starlings with a secret word, then a Rook warns the cranes» 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	DET	PronType=Int	2 quality	det
2	quality	quality	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 did	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 men	case
4	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 quality	nmod
5	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 Rook	det
7	Rook	Rook	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 identify	nsubj
8	identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 did	ccomp
9	as	as	ADP	_	10 fatal	case
10	fatal	fatal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 identify	obl
11	to	to	ADP	_	13 companions	case
12	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 companions	nmod:poss
13	companions	companion	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 fatal	obl
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	past	what quality of men						tree rules
2	identify	present	the Rook					as fatal	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent as fatal=Attribute

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

saying kind things while planning harm

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	saying	say	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	kind	kind	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 things	amod
3	things	thing	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 saying	obj
4	while	while	SCONJ	_	6 harm	mark
5	planning	planning	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 harm	compound
6	harm	harm	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 saying	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	gerund		kind things					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent thing=Topic

Option 2

speaking very loudly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	speaking	speak	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	very	very	ADV	_	3 loudly	advmod
3	loudly	loudly	ADV	_	1 speaking	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	speak speech: other	gerund						loudly property	vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

speaking one thing while meaning another

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	speaking	speak	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 another	csubj
2	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 thing	nummod
3	thing	thing	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 speaking	obj
4	while	while	SCONJ	_	5 meaning	mark
5	meaning	mean	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 speaking	advcl
6	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	speak speech: other	gerund		one thing					tree rules
2	mean	gerund							vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent

Option 4

pretending to be friends while plotting evil

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	pretending	pretend	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	to	to	PART	_	4 friends	mark
3	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	4 friends	cop
4	friends	friend	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 pretending	xcomp
5	while	while	SCONJ	_	6 plotting	mark
6	plotting	plot	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 pretending	conj
7	evil	evil	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 plotting	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	pretend	gerund			tree rules
2	is a	to-infinitive	friends		tree rules
3	plot	gerund		evil property	vn correspond-36.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/151-pg11339-part21/e4/