Exam question 3 · Russian Folk-Tales, Marko the Rich: a stingy merchant trie…

What is the principal moral conveyed by the account of Marko the Rich?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: principal moral · What happens: be, convey, account · To what, where: principal moral, Marko

This is exam question 3 of lesson 419 «Russian Folk-Tales, Marko the Rich: a stingy merchant tries to dodge paying one copeck and gets tricked» 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	root	root
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 moral	det
4	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 moral	amod
5	moral	moral	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
6	conveyed	convey	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 moral	acl
7	by	by	ADP	_	9 account	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 account	det
9	account	account	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 conveyed	obl
10	of	of	ADP	_	11 Marko	case
11	Marko	Marko	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 account	nmod
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 Rich	det
13	Rich	Rich	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 Marko	appos
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the principal moral			tree rules
2	convey	participle		the principal moral not said here	by the account of Marko	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
3	account			Marko		nom account «communication 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 · ← Mova's choice

Marko was punished because he was too cheap and the poor man outwitted him fairly

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Marko	Marko	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 punished	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 punished	aux:pass
3	punished	punish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	because	because	SCONJ	_	8 cheap	mark
5	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 cheap	nsubj
6	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 cheap	cop
7	too	too	ADV	_	8 cheap	advmod
8	cheap	cheap	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 punished	advcl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 outwitted	cc
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 man	det
11	poor	poor	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 man	amod
12	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 outwitted	nsubj
13	outwitted	outwit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 punished	conj
14	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 outwitted	obj
15	fairly	fairly	ADV	_	13 outwitted	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	punish	past · passive		Marko		vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
2	is	past	Marko		cheap property	tree rules
3	outwit	past	the poor man	Marko	fairly property	vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot he=Theme

Option 2

Stinginess is harmful, and the rich should always give money freely to beggars and friends

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Stinginess	stinginess	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 harmful	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 harmful	cop
3	harmful	harmful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 give	punct
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 give	cc
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 rich	det
7	rich	rich	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 give	nsubj
8	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 give	aux
9	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	10 give	advmod
10	give	give	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 harmful	parataxis
11	money	money	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 give	obj
12	freely	freely	ADV	_	10 give	advmod
13	to	to	ADP	_	14 beggars	case
14	beggars	beggar	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 give	obl
15	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 friends	cc
16	friends	friend	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 beggars	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Stinginess					harmful property	tree rules
2	give	should	the rich	money	beggars and friends			always, freely property	vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent money=Theme to beggar=Recipient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Avarice is punished by the cunning of the poor

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Avarice	avarice	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 punished	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 punished	aux:pass
3	punished	punish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	6 cunning	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 cunning	det
6	cunning	cunning	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 punished	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 poor	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 poor	det
9	poor	poor	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 cunning	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	punish	present · passive	the cunning of the poor	Avarice					vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient

Option 4

Wealth brings happiness to every person

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Wealth	wealth	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 brings	nsubj
2	brings	bring	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	happiness	happiness	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 brings	obj
4	to	to	ADP	_	6 person	case
5	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	6 person	det
6	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 brings	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	bring	present	Wealth	happiness	every person				vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent happiness=Theme to person=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.

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