Exam question 3 · Aesop's Fables, The Wily Lion, part 24: a lion tricks a bu…

Which of the following constitutes the outcome of the Dogs' attempt to reach the Hides by drinking the river dry?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Dogs · What happens: follow, constitute, reach, drink, attempt · To what, where: outcome, Hides, river

This is exam question 3 of lesson 154 «Aesop's Fables, The Wily Lion, part 24: a lion tricks a bull, a parrot scolds a cat, a stag and a sick man get their comeuppance» 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	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 constitutes	nsubj
2	of	of	SCONJ	_	5 constitutes	mark
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 constitutes	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 constitutes	nsubj
5	constitutes	constitute	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 outcome	det
7	outcome	outcome	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 constitutes	obj
8	of	of	ADP	_	12 attempt	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 Dogs	det
10	Dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 attempt	nmod:poss
11	'	's	PART	_	10 Dogs	case
12	attempt	attempt	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 outcome	nmod
13	to	to	PART	_	14 reach	mark
14	reach	reach	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 attempt	acl
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 Hides	det
16	Hides	Hide	PROPN	Number=Plur	14 reach	obj
17	by	by	SCONJ	_	18 drinking	mark
18	drinking	drink	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	14 reach	advcl
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 river	det
20	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 drinking	obj
21	dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 drinking	xcomp
22	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 constitutes	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	constitute	present		the outcome of the Dogs's attempt		vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme outcome=Pivot
3	reach	to-infinitive		the Hides		vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent hide=Theme
4	drink	gerund		the river	dry property	vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent river=Patient
5	attempt		the Dogs			nom attempt «act transitive»: poss=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

they found the hides and dragged them out of the water

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 found	nsubj
2	found	find	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 hides	det
4	hides	hide	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 found	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 dragged	cc
6	dragged	drag	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 found	conj
7	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 dragged	obj
8	out	out	ADP	_	11 water	case
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 water	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 water	det
11	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 dragged	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	find	past	they	the hides					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hide=Topic
2	drag	past	they not said here	hides = hide		the water			vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.initial_location»: agent=Agent they=Theme out water=Initial_Location

Option 2

they burst themselves with drinking long before the river was shallow, and the wolves ate the hides by morning

The tree, 19 words

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 burst	nsubj
2	burst	burst	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	themselves	themselves	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	2 burst	obj
4	with	with	SCONJ	_	5 drinking	mark
5	drinking	drink	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 burst	advcl
6	long	long	ADV	Degree=Pos	5 drinking	advmod
7	before	before	SCONJ	_	11 shallow	mark
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 river	det
9	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 shallow	nsubj
10	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 shallow	cop
11	shallow	shallow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 drinking	advcl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 ate	punct
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 ate	cc
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 wolves	det
15	wolves	wolf	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 ate	nsubj
16	ate	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 burst	conj
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 hides	det
18	hides	hide	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 ate	obj
19	by	by	ADP	_	20 morning	case
20	morning	morning	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 ate	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	burst	past	they	themselves = they			vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location themselves=Theme
2	drink	gerund	they not said here			long property	vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	is	past	the river			shallow property	tree rules
4	eat	past	the wolves	the hides	morning		vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hide=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

they burst themselves with drinking before the river was shallow

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 burst	nsubj
2	burst	burst	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	themselves	themselves	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	2 burst	obj
4	with	with	ADP	_	5 drinking	case
5	drinking	drinking	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 burst	obl
6	before	before	SCONJ	_	10 shallow	mark
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 river	det
8	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 shallow	nsubj
9	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 shallow	cop
10	shallow	shallow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 burst	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	burst	past	they	themselves = they				with drinking	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent themselves=Patient with drinking=Instrument
2	is	past	the river					shallow property	tree rules

Option 4

they drank too little and gave up before the river was shallow

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 drank	nsubj
2	drank	drink	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	too	too	ADV	_	4 little	advmod
4	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 drank	obl:unmarked
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 gave	cc
6	gave	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 drank	conj
7	up	up	ADP	_	6 gave	compound:prt
8	before	before	SCONJ	_	12 shallow	mark
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 river	det
10	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 shallow	nsubj
11	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 shallow	cop
12	shallow	shallow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 gave	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	drink	past	they	little		vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	give up	past	they not said here			vn resign-10.11-2 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	is	past	the river		shallow 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/154-pg11339-part24/e3/