Exam question 1 · Olive Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 1: Simon buys a mule…

With reference to the passage, what was the immediate cause of Simon's decision to give away the mule?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: passage, Simon · What happens: be, give away, decide · To what, where: immediate cause, mule

This is exam question 1 of lesson 1906 «Olive Fairy Book, The Biter Bit, part 1: Simon buys a mule that three rogues swear is a donkey» 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	With	with	ADP	_	2 reference	case
2	reference	reference	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	to	to	ADP	_	5 passage	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 passage	det
5	passage	passage	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reference	nmod
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 cause	punct
7	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	11 cause	nsubj
8	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 cause	cop
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 cause	det
10	immediate	immediate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 cause	amod
11	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 passage	conj
12	of	of	ADP	_	15 decision	case
13	Simon	Simon	PROPN	Number=Sing	15 decision	nmod:poss
14	's	's	PART	_	13 Simon	case
15	decision	decision	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 cause	nmod
16	to	to	PART	_	17 give	mark
17	give	give	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 cause	acl
18	away	away	ADP	_	17 give	compound:prt
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 mule	det
20	mule	mule	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 give	obj
21	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 reference	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is a	past	the passage and the immediate cause	the immediate cause	of Simon's decision	tree rules
2	give away	to-infinitive		the mule		vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent mule=Theme
3	decide		Simon			nom decision «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

He was tricked

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 tricked	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 tricked	aux:pass
3	tricked	trick	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	trick	past · passive		He					vn trick-59.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 2

He was persuaded by the rogues that the animal was only a donkey

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 persuaded	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 persuaded	aux:pass
3	persuaded	persuade	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	6 rogues	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 rogues	det
6	rogues	rogue	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 persuaded	obl
7	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	13 donkey	nsubj
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 animal	det
9	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 donkey	nsubj
10	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 donkey	cop
11	only	only	ADV	_	13 donkey	advmod
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 donkey	det
13	donkey	donkey	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 rogues	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	persuade	past · passive	the rogues	He					vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient
2	is a	past	the rogues	a donkey					tree rules

Option 3

A donkey was sold

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 donkey	det
2	donkey	donkey	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 sold	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 sold	aux:pass
4	sold	sell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sell	past · passive		a donkey					vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

He was persuaded by three separate men that it was a donkey

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 persuaded	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 persuaded	aux:pass
3	persuaded	persuade	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	7 men	case
5	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 men	nummod
6	separate	separate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 men	amod
7	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 persuaded	obl
8	that	that	SCONJ	_	12 donkey	mark
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 donkey	nsubj
10	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 donkey	cop
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 donkey	det
12	donkey	donkey	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 persuaded	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	persuade	past · passive	three separate men	He					vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient
2	is a	past	it	a donkey					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.

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