Exam question 4 · Legends of the Old Plantation, Uncle Remus Initiates the L…

At what point of the day did Brer Rabbit arrive at Brer Fox's dwelling?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Brer · What happens: do, arrive, point · To what, where: point, dwelling, day

This is exam question 4 of lesson 567 «Legends of the Old Plantation, Uncle Remus Initiates the Little Boy, part 3: Brer Rabbit tricks Brer Fox out of a dinner» 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	At	at	ADP	_	3 point	case
2	what	what	DET	PronType=Int	3 point	det
3	point	point	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 did	obl
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 day	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 day	det
6	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 point	nmod
7	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	Brer	Brer	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 arrive	nsubj
9	Rabbit	Rabbit	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 Brer	flat
10	arrive	arrive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 did	parataxis
11	at	at	ADP	_	15 dwelling	case
12	Brer	Brer	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 Fox	compound
13	Fox	Fox	PROPN	Number=Sing	15 dwelling	nmod:poss
14	's	's	PART	_	13 Fox	case
15	dwelling	dwelling	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 arrive	obl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	do	past			what point of the day	vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	arrive	present	Brer		Brer Fox's dwelling	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	point			the day		nom point «cognition 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

when the shadows were at their shortest, right at the middle of the bright hot day

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	7 shortest	advmod
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 shadows	det
3	shadows	shadow	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 shortest	nsubj
4	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 shortest	cop
5	at	at	ADP	_	7 shortest	case
6	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 shortest	nmod:poss
7	shortest	short	ADJ	Degree=Sup	root	root
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 middle	punct
9	right	right	ADV	_	12 middle	advmod
10	at	at	ADP	_	12 middle	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 middle	det
12	middle	middle	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 shortest	obl
13	of	of	ADP	_	17 day	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 day	det
15	bright	bright	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 day	amod
16	hot	hot	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 day	amod
17	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 middle	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the shadows			the middle of the bright hot day		short property	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

when the shadows were at their shortest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	7 shortest	advmod
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 shadows	det
3	shadows	shadow	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 shortest	nsubj
4	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 shortest	cop
5	at	at	ADP	_	7 shortest	case
6	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 shortest	nmod:poss
7	shortest	short	ADJ	Degree=Sup	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the shadows					short property	tree rules

Option 3

around the middle of the afternoon

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	around	around	ADP	_	3 middle	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 middle	det
3	middle	middle	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 afternoon	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 afternoon	det
6	afternoon	afternoon	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 middle	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

very early in the morning, while the dew was still lying heavy on the grass in the garden

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	very	very	ADV	_	2 early	advmod
2	early	early	ADV	Degree=Pos	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 morning	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 morning	det
5	morning	morning	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 early	obl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 early	punct
7	while	while	SCONJ	_	12 lying	mark
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 dew	det
9	dew	dew	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 lying	nsubj
10	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 lying	aux
11	still	still	ADV	_	12 lying	advmod
12	lying	lie	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 early	advcl
13	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 lying	xcomp
14	on	on	ADP	_	16 grass	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 grass	det
16	grass	grass	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 lying	obl
17	in	in	ADP	_	19 garden	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 garden	det
19	garden	garden	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 lying	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lie	past · progressive	the dew			the grass	still	in the garden; heavy property	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on grass=Location

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/567-pg2306-part3/e4/