Exam question 2 · Indian Fairy Tales, The Pigeon and the Crow: a greedy Crow…

Explain the reason given by the Pigeon for disbelieving the Crow's claim of indigestion.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, Crow · What happens: explain, give, disbelieve, claim · To what, where: reason, claim, indigestion

This is exam question 2 of lesson 1855 «Indian Fairy Tales, The Pigeon and the Crow: a greedy Crow is caught and plucked» 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	Explain	explain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Explain	obj
4	given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 reason	acl
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 Pigeon	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 Pigeon	det
7	Pigeon	Pigeon	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 given	obl:agent
8	for	for	SCONJ	_	9 disbelieving	mark
9	disbelieving	disbelieve	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 given	advcl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 Crow	det
11	Crow	Crow	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 claim	nmod:poss
12	's	's	PART	_	11 Crow	case
13	claim	claim	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 disbelieving	obj
14	of	of	ADP	_	15 indigestion	case
15	indigestion	indigestion	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 claim	nmod
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Explain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	explain speech: assert	imperative	you not said here	the reason	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	give	participle		the reason not said here	vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
3	disbelieve	gerund		the Crow's claim of indigestion	tree rules
4	claim		the Crow	indigestion	nom claim «communication transitive»: poss=agent of=patient

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

Crows eat only seeds, so their food never sticks in them at all

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Crows	crow	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 eat	nsubj
2	eat	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	only	only	ADV	_	4 seeds	advmod
4	seeds	seed	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 eat	obj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 sticks	punct
6	so	so	ADV	_	10 sticks	advmod
7	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 food	nmod:poss
8	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 sticks	nsubj
9	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	10 sticks	advmod
10	sticks	stick	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 eat	conj
11	in	in	ADP	_	12 them	case
12	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 sticks	obl
13	at	at	ADP	_	14 all	case
14	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	10 sticks	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat	present	Crows	seeds					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent seed=Patient
2	not stick	present	Crows's food			all		in Crows = crow	vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme in they=Destination

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Crows never have indigestion, for their food passes in a trice

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Crows	crow	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 have	nsubj
2	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	3 have	advmod
3	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	indigestion	indigestion	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 have	obj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 passes	punct
6	for	for	SCONJ	_	9 passes	mark
7	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 food	nmod:poss
8	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 passes	nsubj
9	passes	pass	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 have	parataxis
10	in	in	ADP	_	12 trice	case
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 trice	det
12	trice	trice	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 passes	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not have	present	Crows	indigestion					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent indigestion=Patient
2	pass	present	Crows's food			a trice			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in trice=Location

Option 3

Crows are never ill

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Crows	crow	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 ill	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 ill	cop
3	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	4 ill	advmod
4	ill	ill	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not is	present	Crows					ill property	tree rules

Option 4

Crows digest fast, so no

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Crows	crow	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 digest	nsubj
2	digest	digest	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	fast	fast	ADV	Degree=Pos	2 digest	advmod
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 digest	punct
5	so	so	ADV	_	6 no	advmod
6	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	2 digest	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	digest	present	Crows	no				fast 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/1855-pg7128-part39/e2/