Exam question 3 · Aesop's Fables, The Gnat and the Bull, part 24: a gnat, a…

Which of the following accurately describes the outcome for the murderer who fled to the river Nile?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: murderer · What happens: follow, describe, flee · To what, where: river Nile

This is exam question 3 of lesson 403 «Aesop's Fables, The Gnat and the Bull, part 24: a gnat, a camel, dogs, a jackdaw and a workman each get a short lesson» 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	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 outcome	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	8 outcome	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 outcome	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 outcome	csubj
5	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	6 describes	advmod
6	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 following	advcl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 outcome	det
8	outcome	outcome	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
9	for	for	ADP	_	11 murderer	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 murderer	det
11	murderer	murderer	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 outcome	nmod
12	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	13 fled	nsubj
13	fled	flee	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 murderer	acl:relcl
14	to	to	ADP	_	17 Nile	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 Nile	det
16	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 Nile	compound
17	Nile	Nile	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 fled	obl
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 outcome	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	describe	present			accurately property	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent
3	flee	past	the murderer	the river Nile		vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to nile=Initial_Location

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

a crocodile caught and ate him as he swam across the river during the night

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 crocodile	det
2	crocodile	crocodile	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 ate	nsubj
3	caught	catch	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 crocodile	acl
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 caught	cc
5	ate	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 ate	obj
7	as	as	SCONJ	_	9 swam	mark
8	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 swam	nsubj
9	swam	swim	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 ate	advcl
10	across	across	ADP	_	12 river	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 river	det
12	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 swam	obl
13	during	during	ADP	_	15 night	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 night	det
15	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 swam	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	roles by
1	catch	participle		a crocodile not said here			vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	eat	past	a crocodile	him = he			vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient
3	swim	past	crocodile		the river	night	vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme across river=Trajectory

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

a crocodile caught and ate him

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 crocodile	det
2	crocodile	crocodile	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 ate	nsubj
3	caught	catch	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 crocodile	acl
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 caught	cc
5	ate	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 ate	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	catch	participle		a crocodile not said here					vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	eat	past	a crocodile	him = he					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient

Option 3

the king pardoned him at last

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 king	det
2	king	king	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 pardoned	nsubj
3	pardoned	pardon	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 pardoned	obj
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 last	case
6	last	last	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 pardoned	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pardon	past	the king	him = he		last			vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme

Option 4

he was caught by soldiers on the bank and returned to the city to be hanged for murder

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 caught	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 caught	aux:pass
3	caught	catch	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 soldiers	case
5	soldiers	soldier	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 caught	obl
6	on	on	ADP	_	8 bank	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 bank	det
8	bank	bank	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 caught	obl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 returned	cc
10	returned	return	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 caught	conj
11	to	to	ADP	_	13 city	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 city	det
13	city	city	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 returned	obl
14	to	to	PART	_	16 hanged	mark
15	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	16 hanged	aux:pass
16	hanged	hange	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 caught	advcl
17	for	for	ADP	_	18 murder	case
18	murder	murder	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 hanged	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	catch	past · passive	soldiers	he	the bank		vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme
2	return	past	soldiers not said here			to the city result	vn convert-26.6.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Patient to city=Result
3	hange	to-infinitive · passive	soldiers not said here			for murder	tree rules

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/403-pg21-part24/e3/