Exam question 4 · Aesop's Fables, The Farmer and the Stork: a Farmer's nets…

Which proverb is the moral of this fable?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: proverb · What happens: be · To what, where: moral

This is exam question 4 of lesson 385 «Aesop's Fables, The Farmer and the Stork: a Farmer's nets catch a Stork among Cranes, and his pleas fail.» 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 proverb	det
2	proverb	proverb	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 moral	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 moral	cop
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 moral	det
5	moral	moral	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 fable	case
7	this	this	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	8 fable	det
8	fable	fable	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 moral	nmod
9	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 moral	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	which proverb	the moral				of this fable	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

Honesty is the best policy

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Honesty	honesty	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 policy	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 policy	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 policy	det
4	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	5 policy	amod
5	policy	policy	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	Honesty	the best policy					tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Birds of a feather flock together

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 flock	case
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 flock	det
4	feather	feather	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 flock	compound
5	flock	flock	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Birds	nmod
6	together	together	ADV	_	1 Birds	advmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

Make hay while the sun shines

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Make	make	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	hay	hay	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Make	obj
3	while	while	SCONJ	_	6 shines	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 sun	det
5	sun	sun	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 shines	nsubj
6	shines	shine	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Make	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	imperative	you not said here	hay					vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset hay=Product
2	shine	present	the sun						vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

Like birds of a feather should always flock together in a big group

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Like	like	ADP	_	2 birds	case
2	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 flock	obl
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 feather	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 feather	det
5	feather	feather	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 birds	nmod
6	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 flock	aux
7	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	8 flock	advmod
8	flock	flock	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	together	together	ADV	_	8 flock	advmod
10	in	in	ADP	_	13 group	case
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 group	det
12	big	big	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 group	amod
13	group	group	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 flock	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	flock together	should				a big group		like birds of a feather; always, together property	vn herd-47.5.2 «NP V»: agent=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/385-pg21-part6/e4/