Exam question 1 · Uncle Remus, Brer Rabbit and the Chimney, part 9: Brer Rab…

By what means did Brer Rabbit cause Brer Fox to abandon his pursuit?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: Fox · What happens: mean, do, abandon, pursue · To what, where: Brer Rabbit, pursuit · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 1 of lesson 573 «Uncle Remus, Brer Rabbit and the Chimney, part 9: Brer Rabbit tricks Brer Fox out of the chimney, and Brer Wolf makes a plan» 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	By	by	SCONJ	_	3 means	mark
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 means	nsubj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 means	ccomp
5	Brer	Brer	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 Rabbit	compound
6	Rabbit	Rabbit	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
7	cause	cause	SCONJ	_	9 Fox	case
8	Brer	Brer	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 Fox	compound
9	Fox	fox	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obl
10	to	to	PART	_	11 abandon	mark
11	abandon	abandon	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 did	advcl
12	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 pursuit	nmod:poss
13	pursuit	pursuit	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 abandon	obj
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 means	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	mean	present				vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	do	past		Brer Rabbit	cause Brer Fox	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rabbit=Eventuality
3	abandon	to-infinitive		Fox's pursuit		vn leave-51.2 «NP V NP.initial_location»: agent=Theme pursuit=Source
4	pursue		Fox			nom pursuit «act transitive»: poss=agent

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 · ✓ the right answer

by spitting tobacco juice into his eyes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 spitting	mark
2	spitting	spit	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	tobacco	tobacco	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 juice	compound
4	juice	juice	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 spitting	obj
5	into	into	ADP	_	7 eyes	case
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 eyes	nmod:poss
7	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 spitting	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	spit	gerund		tobacco juice		his eyes			vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent juice=Theme

Option 2

by throwing hot ashes at him

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 throwing	mark
2	throwing	throw	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	hot	hot	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 ashes	amod
4	ashes	ash	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 throwing	obj
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 him	case
6	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 throwing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	throw	gerund		hot ashes				at him = he	vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent ash=Theme at he=Destination

Option 3

by spitting a mouthful of tobacco juice into both of his eyes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 spitting	mark
2	spitting	spit	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 mouthful	det
4	mouthful	mouthful	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 spitting	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 juice	case
6	tobacco	tobacco	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 juice	compound
7	juice	juice	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 mouthful	nmod
8	into	into	ADP	_	9 both	case
9	both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	2 spitting	obl
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 eyes	case
11	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 eyes	nmod:poss
12	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 both	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	spit	gerund		a mouthful of tobacco juice		both			vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent mouthful=Theme

Option 4

by spitting tobacco juice directly into his eyes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	by	by	SCONJ	_	2 spitting	mark
2	spitting	spit	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	tobacco	tobacco	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 juice	compound
4	juice	juice	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 spitting	obj
5	directly	directly	ADV	_	2 spitting	advmod
6	into	into	ADP	_	8 eyes	case
7	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 eyes	nmod:poss
8	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 spitting	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	spit	gerund		tobacco juice		his eyes		directly property	vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent juice=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/573-pg2306-part9/e1/