Exam question 1 · Aesop's Fables, The Ass and His Driver: a bolting ass is h…

With reference to the fable of the Ass and His Driver, which action did the owner perform in order to restrain the animal?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: action · What happens: do, perform, restrain · To what, where: owner, order, animal

This is exam question 1 of lesson 404 «Aesop's Fables, The Ass and His Driver: a bolting ass is hauled back by the tail, and the fables that follow each end with a small 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	With	with	ADP	_	2 reference	case
2	reference	reference	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 perform	obl
3	to	to	ADP	_	5 fable	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 fable	det
5	fable	fable	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reference	nmod
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 Ass	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Ass	det
8	Ass	ass	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 fable	nmod
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 Driver	cc
10	His	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 Driver	nmod:poss
11	Driver	driver	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 Ass	conj
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 did	punct
13	which	which	DET	PronType=Int	14 action	det
14	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 did	nsubj
15	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 Driver	acl:relcl
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 owner	det
17	owner	owner	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 did	obj
18	perform	perform	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
19	in	in	ADP	_	20 order	case
20	order	order	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 perform	obl
21	to	to	PART	_	22 restrain	mark
22	restrain	restrain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	18 perform	advcl
23	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	24 animal	det
24	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 restrain	obj
25	?	?	PUNCT	_	18 perform	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	do	past	which action	the owner			vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent owner=Eventuality
2	perform	present			order	with reference to the fable of the Ass and His Driver	vn performance-26.7 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	restrain	to-infinitive		the animal			vn discourage-64.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer animal=Eventuality

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

He grabbed the animal by the tail as it ran toward the cliff edge.

The tree, 14 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	2 grabbed	nsubj
2	grabbed	grab	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 animal	det
4	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 grabbed	obj
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 tail	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 tail	det
7	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 grabbed	obl
8	as	as	SCONJ	_	10 ran	mark
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 ran	nsubj
10	ran	run	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 grabbed	advcl
11	toward	toward	ADP	_	14 edge	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 edge	det
13	cliff	cliff	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 edge	compound
14	edge	edge	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 ran	obl
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 grabbed	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grab	past	He	the animal				by the tail	vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent animal=Theme
2	run	past	animal			the cliff edge			vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme toward edge=Trajectory

Option 2

He tied the animal to a post.

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 tied	nsubj
2	tied	tie	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 animal	det
4	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 tied	obj
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 post	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 post	det
7	post	post	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 tied	obl
8	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 tied	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tie	past	He	the animal				to a post	vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent animal=Patient to post=Co-Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

He seized the animal by the tail.

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 seized	nsubj
2	seized	seize	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 animal	det
4	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 seized	obj
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 tail	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 tail	det
7	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 seized	obl
8	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 seized	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	seize	past	He	the animal				by the tail	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent animal=Theme

Option 4

He whipped the animal hard with a stick until it finally stopped moving forward.

The tree, 14 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	2 whipped	nsubj
2	whipped	whip	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 animal	det
4	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 whipped	obj
5	hard	hard	ADV	Degree=Pos	2 whipped	advmod
6	with	with	ADP	_	8 stick	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 stick	det
8	stick	stick	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 whipped	obl
9	until	until	SCONJ	_	12 stopped	mark
10	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 stopped	nsubj
11	finally	finally	ADV	_	12 stopped	advmod
12	stopped	stop	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 whipped	advcl
13	moving	move	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	12 stopped	xcomp
14	forward	forward	ADV	_	13 moving	advmod
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 whipped	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	whip	past	He	the animal	with a stick; hard property	vn shake-22.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent animal=Patient with stick=Co-Patient
2	stop	past	animal		finally property	vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality
3	move forward	gerund	animal not said here		forward property	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme 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/404-pg21-part25/e1/