Exam question 4 · Aesop's Fables, The Fox and the Hedgehog: a hurt Fox refus…

What, according to the Fox, would follow the removal of the flies?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Fox · What happens: accord, follow, remove · To what, where: removal, flies

This is exam question 4 of lesson 396 «Aesop's Fables, The Fox and the Hedgehog: a hurt Fox refuses a kind Hedgehog's offer to shoo away his flies» 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	9 follow	obj
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 Fox	punct
3	according	accord	VERB	ExtPos=ADP Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 Fox	case
4	to	to	ADP	_	3 according	fixed
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Fox	det
6	Fox	fox	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 follow	nsubj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 Fox	punct
8	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 follow	aux
9	follow	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 removal	det
11	removal	removal	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 follow	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 flies	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 flies	det
14	flies	fly	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 removal	nmod
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	9 follow	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	accord	gerund			vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent
2	follow	would	the Fox	the removal of the flies	vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP.attribute»: agent=Agent what=Theme removal=Attribute
3	remove			the flies	nom removal «act transitive»: of=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

Hungrier flies would settle

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Hungrier	hungry	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	2 flies	amod
2	flies	fly	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 settle	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 settle	aux
4	settle	settle	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	settle	would	Hungrier flies						vn correspond-36.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

Others even hungrier than these would arrive from the nearby marsh and bite him

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Others	other	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 arrive	nsubj
2	even	even	ADV	_	3 hungrier	advmod
3	hungrier	hungry	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	1 Others	amod
4	than	than	ADP	_	5 these	case
5	these	this	PRON	Number=Plur PronType=Dem	3 hungrier	obl
6	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 arrive	aux
7	arrive	arrive	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
8	from	from	ADP	_	11 marsh	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 marsh	det
10	nearby	nearby	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 marsh	amod
11	marsh	marsh	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 arrive	obl
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 bite	cc
13	bite	bite	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 arrive	conj
14	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 bite	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	arrive	would	Others			the nearby marsh			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme from marsh=Initial_Location
2	bite	present	Others not said here	him = he					vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Others more hungry would arrive

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Others	other	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 arrive	nsubj
2	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	3 hungry	advmod
3	hungry	hungry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Others	amod
4	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 arrive	aux
5	arrive	arrive	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	arrive	would	Others						vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

The flies would go away and a hungrier crowd would take their place on him

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 flies	det
2	flies	fly	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 go	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 go	aux
4	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	away	away	ADV	_	4 go	advmod
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 take	cc
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 crowd	det
8	hungrier	hungry	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	9 crowd	amod
9	crowd	crowd	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 take	nsubj
10	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 take	aux
11	take	take	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 go	conj
12	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 place	nmod:poss
13	place	place	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 take	obj
14	on	on	ADP	_	15 him	case
15	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 take	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go away	would	the flies					away property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	take	would	a hungrier crowd	flies's place				on him = he	vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent place=Theme on he=Destination

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/396-pg21-part17/e4/