Test 1 · ★ · Aesop's Fables, The Gnat and the Bull, part 24: a gnat, a…

yo, did the gnat literally ask the bull if he should bounce, or was that a joke?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: bull · What happens: do, ask, bounce, be · To what, where: gnat, bull, joke

This is test 1 · ★ 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. 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	yo	yo	INTJ	_	3 did	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 yo	punct
3	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 ask	advcl
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 gnat	det
5	gnat	gnat	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 did	obj
6	literally	literally	ADV	_	7 ask	advmod
7	ask	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 bull	det
9	bull	bull	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 ask	obj
10	if	if	SCONJ	_	13 bounce	mark
11	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 bounce	nsubj
12	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 bounce	aux
13	bounce	bounce	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 ask	advcl
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 joke	punct
15	or	or	CCONJ	_	19 joke	cc
16	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	19 joke	cop
17	that	that	SCONJ	_	19 joke	mark
18	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	19 joke	det
19	joke	joke	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 bounce	advcl
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 ask	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	do	past		the gnat			vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gnat=Eventuality
2	ask speech: ask	present			the bull	literally property	vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent bull=Recipient
3	bounce a condition, not said to happen	should	bull				vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
4	is a	past	bull not said here	a joke			tree rules

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 · ✓ the right answer

he asked if the bull wanted him gone

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	2 asked	nsubj
2	asked	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	if	if	SCONJ	_	6 wanted	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 bull	det
5	bull	bull	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 wanted	nsubj
6	wanted	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 asked	ccomp
7	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 wanted	obj
8	gone	go	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 wanted	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	ask speech: ask	past	he		vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	want a condition, not said to happen	past	the bull	him = he	tree rules
3	go not said to happen	participle	him = he not said here		vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

it was a joke, since the gnat never speaks to bulls and only buzzes in the grass all day long

The tree, 20 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 joke	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 joke	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 joke	det
4	joke	joke	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 speaks	punct
6	since	since	SCONJ	_	10 speaks	mark
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 gnat	det
8	gnat	gnat	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 speaks	nsubj
9	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	10 speaks	advmod
10	speaks	speak	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 joke	parataxis
11	to	to	ADP	_	12 bulls	case
12	bulls	bull	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 speaks	obl
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 buzzes	cc
14	only	only	ADV	_	15 buzzes	advmod
15	buzzes	buzz	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 speaks	conj
16	in	in	ADP	_	18 grass	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 grass	det
18	grass	grass	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 buzzes	obl
19	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	20 day	det
20	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 buzzes	obl:unmarked
21	long	long	ADV	Degree=Pos	4 joke	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	it	a joke			long property	tree rules
2	not speak speech: other	present	the gnat				to bulls	vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent to bull=Co-Agent
3	buzz	present	the gnat not said here		the grass	day		vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in grass=Location

Option 3

he asked if the bull would dance

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	2 asked	nsubj
2	asked	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	if	if	SCONJ	_	7 dance	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 bull	det
5	bull	bull	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 dance	nsubj
6	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 dance	aux
7	dance	dance	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 asked	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ask speech: ask	past	he						vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	dance a condition, not said to happen	would	the bull						vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

he really asked whether the bull wanted him to leave, because the gnat was being polite

The tree, 16 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 asked	nsubj
2	really	really	ADV	_	3 asked	advmod
3	asked	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	whether	whether	SCONJ	_	7 wanted	mark
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 bull	det
6	bull	bull	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 wanted	nsubj
7	wanted	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 asked	ccomp
8	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 wanted	obj
9	to	to	PART	_	10 leave	mark
10	leave	leave	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 wanted	xcomp
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 polite	punct
12	because	because	SCONJ	_	17 polite	mark
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 gnat	det
14	gnat	gnat	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 polite	nsubj
15	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	17 polite	cop
16	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	17 polite	cop
17	polite	polite	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 asked	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ask speech: ask	past	he			vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	want	past	the bull	him = he		tree rules
3	leave not said to happen	to-infinitive	him = he not said here			vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
4	is	past	the gnat		polite property	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/t1/