Exam question 1 · Aesop for Children, The Lark and Her Young Ones: the farme…

Which of the following best describes the course of action the Farmer resolved upon, namely the cutting of his wheat by his own hand and that of his son?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: course, wheat · What happens: follow, describe, resolve, cut · To what, where: cutting

This is exam question 1 of lesson 377 «Aesop for Children, The Lark and Her Young Ones: the farmer must cut his wheat himself, so the larks fly away» 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	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 describes	obj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 best	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 best	det
4	following	follow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 best	case
5	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	6 describes	nmod
6	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 course	det
8	course	course	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 resolved	nsubj
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 action	case
10	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 course	nmod
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 Farmer	det
12	Farmer	Farmer	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 resolved	nsubj
13	resolved	resolve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 describes	ccomp
14	upon	upon	ADP	_	13 resolved	obl
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 cutting	punct
16	namely	namely	ADV	_	18 cutting	advmod
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 cutting	det
18	cutting	cutting	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 resolved	obl
19	of	of	ADP	_	21 wheat	case
20	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	21 wheat	nmod:poss
21	wheat	wheat	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 cutting	nmod
22	by	by	ADP	_	25 hand	case
23	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	25 hand	nmod:poss
24	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	25 hand	amod
25	hand	hand	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 resolved	obl
26	and	and	CCONJ	_	27 that	cc
27	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	25 hand	conj
28	of	of	ADP	_	30 son	case
29	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	30 son	nmod:poss
30	son	son	NOUN	Number=Sing	27 that	nmod
31	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 describes	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	describe	present			of the best	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP to be ADJ»: agent=Agent which=Theme clause=Attribute
3	resolve	past	the course of action	the cutting of Farmer's wheat	by Farmer's own hand	tree rules
4	cut		Farmer's wheat			nom cutting «act intransitive»: of=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 Farmer decided to hire some men to cut the field

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Farmer	det
2	Farmer	Farmer	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 decided	nsubj
3	decided	decide	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 hire	mark
5	hire	hire	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 decided	xcomp
6	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	7 men	det
7	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 hire	obj
8	to	to	PART	_	9 cut	mark
9	cut	cut	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 hire	advcl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 field	det
11	field	field	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 cut	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	decide	past	the Farmer		vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	hire not said to happen	to-infinitive	the Farmer not said here	some men	vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Theme
3	cut	to-infinitive	the Farmer not said here	the field	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset field=Product

Option 2

He waited for the friends

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	2 waited	nsubj
2	waited	wait	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	for	for	ADP	_	5 friends	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 friends	det
5	friends	friend	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 waited	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wait	past	He					for the friends	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The Farmer resolved to harvest the wheat himself with his son

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Farmer	det
2	Farmer	Farmer	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 resolved	nsubj
3	resolved	resolve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 harvest	mark
5	harvest	harvest	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 resolved	xcomp
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 wheat	det
7	wheat	wheat	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 harvest	obj
8	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	5 harvest	obl:unmarked
9	with	with	ADP	_	11 son	case
10	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 son	nmod:poss
11	son	son	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 harvest	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	resolve	past	the Farmer						tree rules
2	harvest	to-infinitive	the Farmer not said here	the wheat				with Farmer's son; Farmer obl:unmarked	tree rules

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

The Farmer decided his friends would come and cut the crop

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Farmer	det
2	Farmer	Farmer	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 decided	nsubj
3	decided	decide	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 friends	nmod:poss
5	friends	friend	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 come	nsubj
6	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 come	aux
7	come	come	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 decided	ccomp
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 cut	cc
9	cut	cut	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 come	conj
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 crop	det
11	crop	crop	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 cut	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	decide	past	the Farmer		vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	come	would	Farmer's friends		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	cut	infinitive	Farmer's friends not said here	the crop	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset crop=Product

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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