Exam question 1 · Aesop's Fables, The Serpent and the Eagle: a snake, a rogu…

What was the principal consequence of the Goatherd's excessive provision for the Wild Goats?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Goatherd · What happens: be, provide · To what, where: principal consequence

This is exam question 1 of lesson 157 «Aesop's Fables, The Serpent and the Eagle: a snake, a rogue, a proud horse and other short tales» 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	_	11 provision	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Goatherd	det
8	Goatherd	Goatherd	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 provision	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 Goatherd	case
10	excessive	excessive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 provision	amod
11	provision	provision	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 consequence	nmod
12	for	for	ADP	_	15 Goats	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 Goats	det
14	Wild	Wild	PROPN	Number=Sing	15 Goats	compound
15	Goats	Goat	PROPN	Number=Plur	11 provision	nmod
16	?	?	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 Goatherd's excessive provision for the Wild Goats	tree rules
2	provide		the Goatherd					for the Wild Goats	nom provision «communication intransitive»: poss=agent for=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 · ← Mova's choice

The goats stayed loyal to the herd but the goatherd lost his way home at dusk

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 goats	det
2	goats	goat	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 stayed	nsubj
3	stayed	stay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	loyal	loyal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 stayed	xcomp
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 herd	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 herd	det
7	herd	herd	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 stayed	obl
8	but	but	CCONJ	_	11 lost	cc
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 goatherd	det
10	goatherd	goatherd	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 lost	nsubj
11	lost	lose	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 stayed	conj
12	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 way	nmod:poss
13	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 lost	obj
14	home	home	ADV	_	11 lost	advmod
15	at	at	ADP	_	16 dusk	case
16	dusk	dusk	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 lost	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	stay	past	the goats					to the herd; loyal property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	lose	past	the goatherd	goatherd's way			dusk	home property	vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Eventuality

Option 2

They ate the goatherd's whole winter crop

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 ate	nsubj
2	ate	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 goatherd	det
4	goatherd	goatherd	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 crop	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 goatherd	case
6	whole	whole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 crop	amod
7	winter	winter	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 crop	compound
8	crop	crop	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 ate	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat	past	They	the goatherd's whole winter crop					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent crop=Patient

Option 3

They grew so fat that they could no longer climb the hills 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 grew	nsubj
2	grew	grow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	so	so	ADV	_	4 fat	advmod
4	fat	fat	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 grew	xcomp
5	that	that	SCONJ	_	10 climb	mark
6	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 climb	nsubj
7	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 climb	aux
8	no	no	ADV	_	9 longer	advmod
9	longer	long	ADV	Degree=Cmp	10 climb	advmod
10	climb	climb	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 fat	advcl
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 hills	det
12	hills	hill	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 climb	obj
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 died	cc
14	died	die	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 grew	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	grow	past	They		fat property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	climb	could	they	the hills	long property	vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial_Location hill=Theme
3	die	past	They not said here			vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

They deserted the flock upon reaching the hills

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 deserted	nsubj
2	deserted	desert	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 flock	det
4	flock	flock	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 deserted	obj
5	upon	upon	SCONJ	_	6 reaching	mark
6	reaching	reach	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 deserted	advcl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 hills	det
8	hills	hill	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 reaching	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	desert	past	They	the flock					vn leave-51.2-1 «NP V NP.initial_location»: agent=Theme flock=Source
2	reach	gerund	They not said here	the hills					vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent hill=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/157-pg11339-part27/e1/