Exam question 2 · Aesop's Fables, The Ass and the Lapdog, part 8: a jealous…

Which phrase best characterises the Ass's state of mind upon returning to his stall?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: phrase · What happens: characteris, return · To what, where: state

This is exam question 2 of lesson 387 «Aesop's Fables, The Ass and the Lapdog, part 8: a jealous donkey copies a pampered lapdog and gets beaten» 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 phrase	det
2	phrase	phrase	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 characterises	nsubj
3	best	well	ADV	Degree=Sup	4 characterises	advmod
4	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Ass	det
6	Ass	Ass	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 state	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 Ass	case
8	state	state	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 characterises	obj
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 mind	case
10	mind	mind	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 state	nmod
11	upon	upon	SCONJ	_	12 returning	mark
12	returning	return	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 characterises	advcl
13	to	to	ADP	_	15 stall	case
14	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 stall	nmod:poss
15	stall	stall	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 returning	obl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	characteris	present	which phrase	the Ass's state of mind				well property	tree rules
2	return	gerund	which phrase not said here					to phrase's stall result	vn convert-26.6.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Patient to stall=Result

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

feeling proud and content

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	feeling	feel	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	proud	proud	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 feeling	xcomp
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 content	cc
4	content	content	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 proud	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	feel	gerund						proud property	vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

cursing the servants and wishing to be lazy again

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	cursing	curse	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 servants	det
3	servants	servant	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 cursing	obj
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 wishing	cc
5	wishing	wish	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 cursing	conj
6	to	to	PART	_	8 lazy	mark
7	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	8 lazy	cop
8	lazy	lazy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 wishing	xcomp
9	again	again	ADV	_	5 wishing	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	curse	gerund	the servants			vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent servant=Theme
2	wish	gerund		again		vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot
3	is not said to happen	to-infinitive			lazy property	tree rules

Option 3

rejoicing in his new fate

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	rejoicing	rejoice	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	in	in	ADP	_	5 fate	case
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 fate	nmod:poss
4	new	new	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 fate	amod
5	fate	fate	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 rejoicing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	rejoice	gerund				his new fate			vn marvel-31.3 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
2	fate		his = he						nom fate «event transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

lamenting his own folly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	lamenting	lament	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 folly	nmod:poss
3	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 folly	amod
4	folly	folly	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 lamenting	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lament	gerund		his own folly					vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer folly=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/387-pg21-part8/e2/