Exam question 4 · Aesop's Fables, The Fox and the Cock, part 9: the Fox runs…

What did the Farmer's sling lack, and why did the Cranes remain unharmed?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Cranes, Farmer · What happens: do, remain, lack · To what, where: sling lack

This is exam question 4 of lesson 370 «Aesop's Fables, The Fox and the Cock, part 9: the Fox runs off, the Cock wins, and more beast tales follow» 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	2 did	nsubj
2	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 Farmer	det
4	Farmer	Farmer	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 lack	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 Farmer	case
6	sling	sling	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 lack	compound
7	lack	lack	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 did	obj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 remain	punct
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 remain	cc
10	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	14 remain	advmod
11	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 Cranes	aux
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 Cranes	det
13	Cranes	Crane	PROPN	Number=Plur	14 remain	nsubj
14	remain	remain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 did	conj
15	unharmed	unharmed	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 remain	xcomp
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	do	past		the Farmer's sling lack		vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lack=Eventuality
2	remain	present	the Cranes		unharmed property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	lack		the Farmer			nom lack «state 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

It lacked stones entirely, and the Cranes perceived no harm at all from the swing

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 lacked	nsubj
2	lacked	lack	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	stones	stone	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 lacked	obj
4	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	2 lacked	advmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 perceived	punct
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 perceived	cc
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Cranes	det
8	Cranes	Crane	PROPN	Number=Plur	9 perceived	nsubj
9	perceived	perceive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 lacked	conj
10	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	11 harm	det
11	harm	harm	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 perceived	obj
12	at	at	ADP	_	13 all	case
13	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	9 perceived	obl
14	from	from	ADP	_	16 swing	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 swing	det
16	swing	swing	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 perceived	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lack	past	It	stones				entirely property	tree rules
2	perceive	past	the Cranes	no harm		all		from the swing	vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer harm=Stimulus

Option 2

It lacked a stone, so the Cranes felt no harm

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 lacked	nsubj
2	lacked	lack	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 stone	det
4	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 lacked	obj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 felt	punct
6	so	so	ADV	_	9 felt	advmod
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Cranes	det
8	Cranes	Crane	PROPN	Number=Plur	9 felt	nsubj
9	felt	feel	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 lacked	conj
10	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	11 harm	det
11	harm	harm	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 felt	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lack	past	It	a stone					tree rules
2	feel	past	the Cranes	no harm					vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent harm=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

It had no stones, and the Cranes saw no harm

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 had	nsubj
2	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 stones	det
4	stones	stone	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 had	obj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 saw	punct
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 saw	cc
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Cranes	det
8	Cranes	Crane	PROPN	Number=Plur	9 saw	nsubj
9	saw	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 had	conj
10	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	11 harm	det
11	harm	harm	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 saw	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	past	It	no stones					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stone=Patient
2	see	past	the Cranes	no harm					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer harm=Stimulus

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It lacked stones, and the Cranes perceived no harm

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 lacked	nsubj
2	lacked	lack	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	stones	stone	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 lacked	obj
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 perceived	punct
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 perceived	cc
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 Cranes	det
7	Cranes	Crane	PROPN	Number=Plur	8 perceived	nsubj
8	perceived	perceive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 lacked	conj
9	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	10 harm	det
10	harm	harm	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 perceived	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lack	past	It	stones					tree rules
2	perceive	past	the Cranes	no harm					vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer harm=Stimulus

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/370-pg19994-part9/e4/