Exam question 3 · Aesop's Fables, The Quack Doctor, part 25: a sick man fool…

Who appeared before the Old Man when he called upon Death?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Man · What happens: appear, call · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 3 of lesson 155 «Aesop's Fables, The Quack Doctor, part 25: a sick man fools his doctor, and a fox outwits a lion» 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	Who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	2 appeared	nsubj
2	appeared	appear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	before	before	ADP	_	6 Man	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Man	det
5	Old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 Man	amod
6	Man	Man	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 appeared	obl
7	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	9 called	advmod
8	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 called	nsubj
9	called	call	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 appeared	advcl
10	upon	upon	ADP	_	11 Death	case
11	Death	Death	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 called	obl
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 appeared	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	appear	past					before the Old Man		vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme before man=Location
2	call	past	Man					upon Death	vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «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

Death, who offered to serve him as a faithful servant for the rest of his days

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 offered	nsubj
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 offered	punct
3	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 offered	nsubj
4	offered	offer	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 serve	mark
6	serve	serve	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 offered	xcomp
7	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 serve	obj
8	as	as	ADP	_	11 servant	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 servant	det
10	faithful	faithful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 servant	amod
11	servant	servant	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 offered	obl
12	for	for	ADP	_	14 rest	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 rest	det
14	rest	rest	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 offered	obl
15	of	of	ADP	_	17 days	case
16	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 days	nmod:poss
17	days	day	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 rest	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	offer	past	Death					as a faithful servant; for the rest of Death's days	tree rules
2	serve not said to happen	to-infinitive	Death not said here	Death					vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Attribute

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Death, who offered to serve him

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 offered	nsubj
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 offered	punct
3	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 offered	nsubj
4	offered	offer	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 serve	mark
6	serve	serve	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 offered	xcomp
7	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 serve	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	offer	past	Death						tree rules
2	serve not said to happen	to-infinitive	Death not said here	Death					vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Attribute

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

A tall stranger in black

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 stranger	det
2	tall	tall	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 stranger	amod
3	stranger	stranger	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 black	case
5	black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 stranger	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

The god Mercury, who guided souls

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 god	det
2	god	god	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 guided	nsubj
3	Mercury	Mercury	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 god	appos
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 guided	punct
5	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 guided	nsubj
6	guided	guide	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	souls	soul	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 guided	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	guide	past	the god	souls					vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent soul=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/155-pg11339-part25/e3/