Exam question 4 · Uncle Remus, The Wonderful Tar Baby Story: Brer Rabbit get…

What quality does Brer Possum assert that he will not tolerate in future disputes?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Brer · What happens: assert, not tolerate · To what, where: future disputes

This is exam question 4 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	quality	quality	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 does	nsubj
3	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 assert	aux
4	Brer	Brer	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 assert	nsubj
5	Possum	Possum	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 Brer	flat
6	assert	assert	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	that	that	SCONJ	_	11 tolerate	mark
8	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 tolerate	nsubj
9	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 tolerate	aux
10	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	11 tolerate	advmod
11	tolerate	tolerate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 assert	ccomp
12	in	in	ADP	_	14 disputes	case
13	future	future	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 disputes	amod
14	disputes	dispute	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 tolerate	obl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 assert	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	assert	present · do-support	Brer						vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	not tolerate	future	Brer			future disputes			vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer

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

Being scolded

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 scolded	aux:pass
2	scolded	scold	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	scold	gerund · passive							vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»

Option 2

Being tickled and laughed at by his friends too

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 tickled	aux:pass
2	tickled	tickle	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 laughed	cc
4	laughed	laugh	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 tickled	conj
5	at	at	ADP	_	4 laughed	obl
6	by	by	ADP	_	8 friends	case
7	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 friends	nmod:poss
8	friends	friend	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 tickled	obl
9	too	too	ADV	_	2 tickled	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tickle	gerund · passive	his friends						vn tingle-40.8.2 «NP V»: agent=Patient
2	laugh	participle	his friends not said here						vn nonverbal_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Being tickled

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 tickled	aux:pass
2	tickled	tickle	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tickle	gerund · passive							vn tingle-40.8.2 «NP V»

Option 4

Being tickled by any dog or animal in the woods

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 tickled	aux:pass
2	tickled	tickle	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
3	by	by	ADP	_	5 dog	case
4	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	5 dog	det
5	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 tickled	obl
6	or	or	CCONJ	_	7 animal	cc
7	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 dog	conj
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 woods	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 woods	det
10	woods	wood	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 tickled	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tickle	gerund · passive	any dog or animal			the woods			vn tingle-40.8.2 «NP V»: agent=Patient

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/e4/