Exam question 3 · Aesop's Fables, The Image of Mercury and the Carpenter: a…

What reply did the Crane make to the Peacock's taunts about its plumage?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Crane, Peacock · What happens: make, taunt

This is exam question 3 of lesson 395 «Aesop's Fables, The Image of Mercury and the Carpenter: a poor carpenter smashes his idol and gets gold» 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	6 make	obj
2	reply	reply	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 make	aux
3	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 make	aux
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 Crane	det
5	Crane	Crane	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 make	nsubj
6	make	make	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	to	to	ADP	_	11 taunts	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 Peacock	det
9	Peacock	Peacock	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 taunts	nmod:poss
10	's	's	PART	_	9 Peacock	case
11	taunts	taunt	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 make	obl
12	about	about	ADP	_	14 plumage	case
13	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 plumage	nmod:poss
14	plumage	plumage	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 taunts	nmod
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 make	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present · do-support	the Crane					to the Peacock's taunts about Crane's plumage	vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Product
2	taunt		the Peacock					about Crane's plumage	nom taunt «act transitive»: poss=agent about=obl

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

that it was proud of its feathers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	that	that	SCONJ	_	4 proud	mark
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 proud	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 proud	cop
4	proud	proud	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 feathers	case
6	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 feathers	nmod:poss
7	feathers	feather	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 proud	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	it					of its feathers; proud property	tree rules

Option 2

that it soared up to heaven and sang to the stars, where none of the others could go

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	that	that	SCONJ	_	3 soared	mark
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 soared	nsubj
3	soared	soar	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	up	up	ADP	_	3 soared	compound:prt
5	to	to	ADP	_	6 heaven	case
6	heaven	heaven	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 soared	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 sang	cc
8	sang	sing	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 soared	conj
9	to	to	ADP	_	11 stars	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 stars	det
11	stars	star	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 sang	obl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 go	punct
13	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	19 go	advmod
14	none	none	PRON	PronType=Neg	19 go	nsubj
15	of	of	ADP	_	17 others	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 others	det
17	others	other	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 none	nmod
18	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	19 go	aux
19	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 stars	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	to whom	where	roles by
1	soar up	past	it		heaven	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme to heaven=Trajectory
2	sing speech: express	past		the stars		vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to star=Recipient
3	go	could	none			vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

that it soared to heaven and sang to the stars

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	that	that	SCONJ	_	3 soared	mark
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 soared	nsubj
3	soared	soar	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	5 heaven	case
5	heaven	heaven	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 soared	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 sang	cc
7	sang	sing	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 soared	conj
8	to	to	ADP	_	10 stars	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 stars	det
10	stars	star	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 sang	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	soar	past	it			heaven			vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme to heaven=Trajectory
2	sing speech: express	past			the stars				vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to star=Recipient

Option 4

that its ashen feathers were better than the peacock's gaudy tail, and it did not care what anyone thought

The tree, 20 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	that	that	SCONJ	_	6 better	mark
2	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 feathers	nmod:poss
3	ashen	ashen	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 feathers	amod
4	feathers	feather	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 better	nsubj
5	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 better	cop
6	better	good	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
7	than	than	ADP	_	12 tail	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 peacock	det
9	peacock	peacock	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 tail	nmod:poss
10	's	's	PART	_	9 peacock	case
11	gaudy	gaudy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 tail	amod
12	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 better	obl
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 care	punct
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	18 care	cc
15	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	18 care	nsubj
16	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	18 care	aux
17	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	18 care	advmod
18	care	care	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 better	parataxis
19	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	21 thought	obj
20	anyone	anyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	21 thought	nsubj
21	thought	think	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	18 care	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	past	its ashen feathers	than the peacock's gaudy tail; good property	tree rules
2	not care	past · do-support	tail		vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
3	think speech: other	past	anyone		vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot what=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/395-pg21-part16/e3/