Exam question 2 · Aesop for Children, The Cat and the Birds, part 1: a thin…

Which discovery did the sons make upon settling their accounts at harvest time?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: discovery, sons · What happens: do, make, settle, account · To what, where: accounts

This is exam question 2 of lesson 371 «Aesop for Children, The Cat and the Birds, part 1: a thin hungry cat dresses up as a doctor» 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	Which	which	DET	PronType=Int	2 discovery	det
2	discovery	discovery	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	nsubj
3	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 sons	det
5	sons	son	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 make	nsubj
6	make	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 did	ccomp
7	upon	upon	SCONJ	_	8 settling	mark
8	settling	settle	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 make	advcl
9	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 accounts	nmod:poss
10	accounts	account	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 settling	obj
11	at	at	ADP	_	13 time	case
12	harvest	harvest	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 time	compound
13	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 settling	obl
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	roles by
1	do	past	which discovery			tree rules
2	make	present	the sons			vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	settle	gerund	the sons not said here	sons's accounts	time	vn odge-46-1 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme account=Location
4	account		sons = son			nom account «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 · ✓ the right answer

They had gained a profit exceeding their neighbours'

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 gained	nsubj
2	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 gained	aux
3	gained	gain	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 profit	det
5	profit	profit	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 gained	obj
6	exceeding	exceed	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 profit	acl
7	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 neighbours	nmod:poss
8	neighbours	neighbour	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 exceeding	obj
9	'	's	PART	_	8 neighbours	case

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	gain	past · perfect	They	a profit					vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent profit=Theme
2	exceed	gerund	a profit not said here	their neighbours					vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot neighbour=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

They had found the gold their father hid

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 found	nsubj
2	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 found	aux
3	found	find	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 gold	det
5	gold	gold	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 found	obj
6	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 father	nmod:poss
7	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 hid	nsubj
8	hid	hide	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 found	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	find	past · perfect	They	the gold					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gold=Topic
2	hide	past	their father						vn concealment-16-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

They had gained a profit that exceeded their neighbours' by a wide margin after selling the entire crop

The tree, 19 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 gained	nsubj
2	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 gained	aux
3	gained	gain	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 profit	det
5	profit	profit	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 gained	obj
6	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 exceeded	nsubj
7	exceeded	exceed	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 profit	acl:relcl
8	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 neighbours	nmod:poss
9	neighbours	neighbour	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 exceeded	obj
10	'	's	PART	_	9 neighbours	case
11	by	by	ADP	_	14 margin	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 margin	det
13	wide	wide	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 margin	amod
14	margin	margin	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 exceeded	obl
15	after	after	SCONJ	_	16 selling	mark
16	selling	sell	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 exceeded	advcl
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 crop	det
18	entire	entire	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 crop	amod
19	crop	crop	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 selling	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	gain	past · perfect	They	a profit		vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent profit=Theme
2	exceed	past	a profit	their neighbours	by a wide margin	vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot neighbour=Theme
3	sell	gerund	a profit not said here	the entire crop		vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent crop=Theme

Option 4

They had earned a smaller profit than their neighbours

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 earned	nsubj
2	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 earned	aux
3	earned	earn	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 profit	det
5	smaller	small	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	6 profit	amod
6	profit	profit	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 earned	obj
7	than	than	ADP	_	9 neighbours	case
8	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 neighbours	nmod:poss
9	neighbours	neighbour	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 earned	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	earn	past · perfect	They	a smaller profit				than their neighbours	vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent profit=Theme

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/371-pg19994-part10/e2/