Exam question 3 · Aesop's Fables, The Lark and Her Young Ones, part 15: the…

With reference to the text, why did the Hare fail to overtake the Tortoise in the race?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · What happens: do, overtake · To what, where: Hare fail, Tortoise, race

This is exam question 3 of lesson 376 «Aesop's Fables, The Lark and Her Young Ones, part 15: the young Larks fear the reapers, but their mother says the wheat is not ready yet» 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	7 why	obl
3	to	to	ADP	_	5 text	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 text	det
5	text	text	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reference	nmod
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 reference	punct
7	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	root	root
8	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 why	advcl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 fail	det
10	Hare	Hare	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 fail	compound
11	fail	fail	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 did	obj
12	to	to	PART	_	13 overtake	mark
13	overtake	overtake	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 fail	acl
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 Tortoise	det
15	Tortoise	Tortoise	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 overtake	obj
16	in	in	ADP	_	18 race	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 race	det
18	race	race	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 overtake	obl
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 why	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	past		the Hare fail					vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fail=Eventuality
2	overtake	to-infinitive		the Tortoise		the race			tree rules

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 · ✓ the right answer

He had slept while the Tortoise passed him and could not catch up in time

The tree, 15 words

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 slept	nsubj
2	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 slept	aux
3	slept	sleep	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	while	while	SCONJ	_	7 passed	mark
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Tortoise	det
6	Tortoise	Tortoise	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 passed	nsubj
7	passed	pass	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 slept	advcl
8	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 passed	obj
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 catch	cc
10	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 catch	aux
11	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	12 catch	advmod
12	catch	catch	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 slept	conj
13	up	up	ADP	_	12 catch	compound:prt
14	in	in	ADP	_	15 time	case
15	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 catch	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	roles by
1	sleep	past · perfect	He			vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	pass	past	the Tortoise	him = he		vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme he=Trajectory
3	not catch up	could	He not said here		time	vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 2

He had tripped on a stone and lost his place

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 tripped	nsubj
2	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 tripped	aux
3	tripped	trip	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	on	on	ADP	_	6 stone	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 stone	det
6	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 tripped	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 lost	cc
8	lost	lose	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 tripped	conj
9	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 place	nmod:poss
10	place	place	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 lost	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	trip	past · perfect	He			a stone			vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on stone=Trajectory
2	lose	past	He not said here	his place					vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent place=Eventuality

Option 3

He had dozed while the Tortoise overtook him and was too late

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 dozed	nsubj
2	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 dozed	aux
3	dozed	doze	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	while	while	SCONJ	_	7 overtook	mark
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Tortoise	det
6	Tortoise	Tortoise	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 overtook	nsubj
7	overtook	overtake	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 dozed	advcl
8	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 overtook	obj
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 late	cc
10	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 late	cop
11	too	too	ADV	_	12 late	advmod
12	late	late	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 overtook	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	doze	past · perfect	He			vn snooze-40.4 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	overtake	past	the Tortoise	him = he		tree rules
3	is	past	the Tortoise not said here		late property	tree rules

Option 4

He had stopped to eat

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 stopped	nsubj
2	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 stopped	aux
3	stopped	stop	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 eat	mark
5	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 stopped	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	stop	past · perfect	He						vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality
2	eat	to-infinitive	He not said here						vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/376-pg19994-part15/e3/