Exam question 1 · Aesop's Fables, The Cat and the Birds: a cat posing as a d…

Which animal, dressed in the guise of a physician, approached the aviary, and what reply did its occupants give?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: animal, occupants · What happens: dress, approach, reply, give · To what, where: animal, guise, aviary

This is exam question 1 of lesson 388 «Aesop's Fables, The Cat and the Birds: a cat posing as a doctor is sent packing» 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 animal	det
2	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 approached	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 dressed	punct
4	dressed	dress	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 animal	acl
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 guise	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 guise	det
7	guise	guise	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 dressed	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 physician	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 physician	det
10	physician	physician	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 guise	nmod
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 animal	punct
12	approached	approach	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 aviary	det
14	aviary	aviary	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 approached	obj
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 reply	punct
16	and	and	CCONJ	_	18 reply	cc
17	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	18 reply	nsubj
18	reply	reply	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 approached	parataxis
19	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	22 give	aux
20	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	21 occupants	nmod:poss
21	occupants	occupant	NOUN	Number=Plur	22 give	nsubj
22	give	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	18 reply	conj
23	?	?	PUNCT	_	12 approached	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	dress	participle		which animal not said here	the guise of a physician	vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	approach	past	which animal	the aviary		vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent aviary=Theme
3	reply speech: assert	present				vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	give	past · do-support	animal's occupants			vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient

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 fox, told the birds were fine and to leave

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 fox	det
2	fox	fox	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 fine	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 fox	punct
4	told	tell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 fine	cop
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 birds	det
6	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 fine	nsubj
7	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 fine	cop
8	fine	fine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 leave	cc
10	to	to	PART	_	11 leave	mark
11	leave	leave	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 fine	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the fox					fine property	tree rules
2	leave	to-infinitive	the fox not said here						vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

The fox, who was told the birds were sick and should stay

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 fox	det
2	fox	fox	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 sick	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 told	punct
4	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 told	nsubj
5	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 told	aux:pass
6	told	tell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 fox	acl:relcl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 birds	det
8	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 told	obj
9	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 sick	cop
10	sick	sick	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 stay	cc
12	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 stay	aux
13	stay	stay	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 sick	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	past · passive		the fox	the birds		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient bird=Topic
2	is	past	the fox			sick property	tree rules
3	stay	should	the fox not said here				vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

The fox, who was told to leave

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 fox	det
2	fox	fox	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 told	punct
4	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 told	nsubj
5	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 told	aux:pass
6	told	tell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 fox	acl:relcl
7	to	to	PART	_	8 leave	mark
8	leave	leave	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 told	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	past · passive		the fox					vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic
2	leave not said to happen	to-infinitive	the fox not said here						vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The cat, who was told the birds were well and should depart

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cat	det
2	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 told	punct
4	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 told	nsubj
5	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 told	aux:pass
6	told	tell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 cat	acl:relcl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 birds	det
8	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 told	iobj
9	were	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 birds	acl
10	well	well	ADV	Degree=Pos	9 were	advmod
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 depart	cc
12	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 depart	aux
13	depart	depart	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 told	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	past · passive		the cat	the birds		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: subject=Recipient bird=Topic
2	be	past	the birds not said here			well property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	depart	should					vn escape-51.1-1-1 «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/388-pg21-part9/e1/