Exam question 4 · Aesop's Fables, The Serpent and the Eagle: a snake, a rogu…

What conclusion does the Swallow's reply to the Crow most clearly imply?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: conclusion, Crow, Swallow · What happens: do, imply, reply · To what, where: reply

This is exam question 4 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	DET	PronType=Int	2 conclusion	det
2	conclusion	conclusion	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 does	nsubj
3	does	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 Swallow	det
5	Swallow	Swallow	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 reply	nmod:poss
6	's	's	PART	_	5 Swallow	case
7	reply	reply	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 does	obj
8	to	to	ADP	_	10 Crow	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 Crow	det
10	Crow	crow	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 does	obl
11	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	12 clearly	advmod
12	clearly	clearly	ADV	_	13 imply	advmod
13	imply	imply	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 Crow	acl:relcl
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 does	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	do	present	what conclusion	the Swallow's reply	to the Crow	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reply=Eventuality
2	imply	infinitive	the Crow not said here		clearly property	vn indicate-78 «NP V how S»: agent=Pivot
3	reply		the Swallow			nom reply «communication 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

The Crow wanted to be a princess himself and was envious of her story

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Crow	det
2	Crow	crow	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 wanted	nsubj
3	wanted	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	7 princess	mark
5	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 princess	cop
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 princess	det
7	princess	princess	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 wanted	obj
8	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Emp Reflex=Yes	7 princess	nmod:unmarked
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 envious	cc
10	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 envious	cop
11	envious	envious	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 wanted	conj
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 story	case
13	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 story	nmod:poss
14	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 envious	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	want	past	the Crow			vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot
2	is a	to-infinitive		a princess	Crow nmod:unmarked	tree rules
3	is	past	the Crow not said here		of princess's story; envious property	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Her boasting was not to be trusted

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 boasting	nmod:poss
2	boasting	boasting	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 trusted	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 trusted	aux:pass
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	7 trusted	advmod
5	to	to	PART	_	7 trusted	mark
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 trusted	aux:pass
7	trusted	trust	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not trust	past · passive		Her boasting					vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 3

The Crow was jealous of the Swallow

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Crow	det
2	Crow	crow	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 jealous	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 jealous	cop
4	jealous	jealous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 Swallow	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 Swallow	det
7	Swallow	swallow	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 jealous	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the Crow					of the Swallow; jealous property	tree rules

Option 4

She was a liar

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 liar	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 liar	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 liar	det
4	liar	liar	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	She	a liar					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/157-pg11339-part27/e4/