Exam question 3 · Uncle Remus, The Wonderful Tar Baby Story: Brer Rabbit get…

What explanation does Brer Possum give for lying motionless when the dog attacked?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: Brer · What happens: give, lie, attack · To what, where: dog

This is exam question 3 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	3 does	obj
2	explanation	explanation	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 does	nsubj
3	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 give	aux
4	Brer	Brer	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 give	nsubj
5	Possum	Possum	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 Brer	flat
6	give	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	for	for	SCONJ	_	8 lying	mark
8	lying	lie	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	13 attacked	advcl
9	motionless	motionless	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 lying	xcomp
10	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	13 attacked	advmod
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 dog	det
12	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 attacked	nsubj:pass
13	attacked	attack	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 give	parataxis
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 give	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	give	present · do-support	Brer			vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
2	lie	gerund			motionless property	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	attack	participle · passive		the dog		vn attack-60.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=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

He is extremely ticklish and the dog tickled him

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	4 ticklish	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 ticklish	cop
3	extremely	extremely	ADV	_	4 ticklish	advmod
4	ticklish	ticklish	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 tickled	cc
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 dog	det
7	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 tickled	nsubj
8	tickled	tickle	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 ticklish	conj
9	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 tickled	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	He					extremely, ticklish property	tree rules
2	tickle	past	the dog	him = he					vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Experiencer

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

He is extremely ticklish

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	4 ticklish	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 ticklish	cop
3	extremely	extremely	ADV	_	4 ticklish	advmod
4	ticklish	ticklish	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	He					extremely, ticklish property	tree rules

Option 3

He is very ill today

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	4 ill	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 ill	cop
3	very	very	ADV	_	4 ill	advmod
4	ill	ill	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	today	today	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 ill	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	He				today	ill property	tree rules

Option 4

He was too sleepy then

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	4 sleepy	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 sleepy	cop
3	too	too	ADV	_	4 sleepy	advmod
4	sleepy	sleepy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	4 sleepy	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	He				then	sleepy 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/568-pg2306-part4/e3/