Exam question 2 · Uncle Remus, The Wonderful Tar Baby Story: Brer Rabbit get…

What, according to Uncle Remus, is the outcome of the fox's pursuit at the close of the tale?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: fox · What happens: accord, be, pursue · To what, where: outcome, close

This is exam question 2 of lesson 568 «Uncle Remus, The Wonderful Tar Baby Story: Brer Rabbit gets stuck fast to the Tar-Baby» 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	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 Remus	punct
3	according	accord	VERB	ExtPos=ADP Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 Remus	case
4	to	to	ADP	_	3 according	fixed
5	Uncle	Uncle	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 Remus	compound
6	Remus	Remus	PROPN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 outcome	punct
8	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 outcome	cop
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 outcome	det
10	outcome	outcome	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 Remus	appos
11	of	of	ADP	_	15 pursuit	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 fox	det
13	fox	fox	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 pursuit	nmod:poss
14	's	's	PART	_	13 fox	case
15	pursuit	pursuit	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 outcome	nmod
16	at	at	ADP	_	18 close	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 close	det
18	close	close	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 pursuit	nmod
19	of	of	ADP	_	21 tale	case
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 tale	det
21	tale	tale	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 close	nmod
22	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	accord	gerund					vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent
2	is a	present		the outcome		of the fox's pursuit at the close of the tale	tree rules
3	pursue		the fox		the close of the tale		nom pursuit «act transitive»: poss=agent at=place

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 fox catches the rabbit but the rabbit tricks him later on

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 fox	det
2	fox	fox	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 catches	nsubj
3	catches	catch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 rabbit	det
5	rabbit	rabbit	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 catches	obj
6	but	but	CCONJ	_	9 tricks	cc
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 rabbit	det
8	rabbit	rabbit	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 tricks	nsubj
9	tricks	trick	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 catches	conj
10	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 tricks	obj
11	later	late	ADV	Degree=Cmp	9 tricks	advmod
12	on	on	ADP	_	9 tricks	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	catch	present	the fox	the rabbit					vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rabbit=Theme
2	trick on	present	the rabbit	fox				late property	vn trick-59.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

The fox catches the rabbit

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 fox	det
2	fox	fox	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 catches	nsubj
3	catches	catch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 rabbit	det
5	rabbit	rabbit	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 catches	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	catch	present	the fox	the rabbit					vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rabbit=Theme

Option 3

The matter remains uncertain and nobody knows for sure

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 matter	det
2	matter	matter	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 remains	nsubj
3	remains	remain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	uncertain	uncertain	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 remains	xcomp
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 knows	cc
6	nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	7 knows	nsubj
7	knows	know	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 remains	conj
8	for	for	ADP	_	9 sure	case
9	sure	sure	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 knows	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	remain	present	the matter					uncertain property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	know	present	nobody					for sure	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The matter remains uncertain

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 matter	det
2	matter	matter	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 remains	nsubj
3	remains	remain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	uncertain	uncertain	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 remains	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	remain	present	the matter					uncertain property	vn exist-47.1 «NP 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/568-pg2306-part4/e2/