Exam question 3 · Aesop's Fables, The Wolf and the Lamb: a Wolf invents excu…

What fault does the Wolf assign to the Lamb's family following her denial of fraternal guilt?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: fault, family · What happens: do, follow, deny · To what, where: Wolf assign, denial, fraternal guilt

This is exam question 3 of lesson 367 «Aesop's Fables, The Wolf and the Lamb: a Wolf invents excuses to eat a Lamb» 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	3 does	obj
2	fault	fault	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	6 assign	det
5	Wolf	Wolf	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 assign	compound
6	assign	assign	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 does	obj
7	to	to	ADP	_	11 family	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 Lamb	det
9	Lamb	Lamb	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 family	nmod:poss
10	's	's	PART	_	9 Lamb	case
11	family	family	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 assign	nmod
12	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	11 family	acl
13	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 denial	nmod:poss
14	denial	denial	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 following	obj
15	of	of	ADP	_	17 guilt	case
16	fraternal	fraternal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 guilt	amod
17	guilt	guilt	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 denial	nmod
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 does	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	do	present	fault	the Wolf assign	to the Lamb's family	tree rules
2	follow	gerund	the Lamb's family not said here	fault's denial of fraternal guilt		vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent denial=Theme
3	deny		fault	fraternal guilt		nom denial «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

Lying about him at some point during the previous year and beyond

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Lying	lie	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	about	about	ADP	_	3 him	case
3	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 Lying	obl
4	at	at	ADP	_	6 point	case
5	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	6 point	det
6	point	point	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Lying	obl
7	during	during	ADP	_	10 year	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 year	det
9	previous	previous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 year	amod
10	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Lying	obl
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 beyond	cc
12	beyond	beyond	ADV	_	10 year	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lie	gerund				some point	year	about him = he	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent about he=Location

Option 2

Stealing from him last year

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Stealing	steal	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	from	from	ADP	_	3 him	case
3	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 Stealing	obl
4	last	last	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 year	amod
5	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Stealing	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	steal	gerund					year	from him = he	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

Lying about him at some point, and then trying to hide the evidence

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Lying	lie	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 trying	csubj
2	about	about	ADP	_	3 him	case
3	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 Lying	obl
4	at	at	ADP	_	6 point	case
5	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	6 point	det
6	point	point	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Lying	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 trying	punct
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 trying	cc
9	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	10 trying	advmod
10	trying	try	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
11	to	to	PART	_	12 hide	mark
12	hide	hide	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 trying	xcomp
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 evidence	det
14	evidence	evidence	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 hide	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lie	gerund			some point		about him = he	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent about he=Location
2	try	gerund	Lying			then		vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
3	hide not said to happen	to-infinitive	Lying not said here	the evidence				vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent evidence=Patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Lying about him at some point

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Lying	lie	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	about	about	ADP	_	3 him	case
3	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	1 Lying	obl
4	at	at	ADP	_	6 point	case
5	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	6 point	det
6	point	point	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Lying	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lie	gerund				some point		about him = he	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent about he=Location

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/367-pg19994-part6/e3/