Exam question 1 · Uncle Remus, Brer Rabbit and Brer Wolf, part 11: Rabbit sc…

By what stratagem did Brer Rabbit cause the demise of Brer Wolf?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: stratagem · What happens: do, cause · To what, where: Brer Rabbit, demise

This is exam question 1 of lesson 575 «Uncle Remus, Brer Rabbit and Brer Wolf, part 11: Rabbit scalds Brer Wolf with hot water» 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	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 cause	obl
3	stratagem	stratagem	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	nsubj
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 what	acl:relcl
5	Brer	Brer	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 Rabbit	compound
6	Rabbit	Rabbit	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 did	obj
7	cause	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 demise	det
9	demise	demise	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 cause	obj
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 Wolf	case
11	Brer	Brer	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 Wolf	compound
12	Wolf	Wolf	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 demise	nmod
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 cause	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	past	stratagem	Brer Rabbit					vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rabbit=Eventuality
2	cause	present		the demise of Brer Wolf					vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition demise=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

By pouring cold water on the lid

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 pouring	mark
2	pouring	pour	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 water	amod
4	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pouring	obj
5	on	on	ADP	_	7 lid	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 lid	det
7	lid	lid	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pouring	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pour	gerund		cold water		the lid			vn preparing-26.3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent water=Patient

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

By pouring boiling water upon the chest-lid

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 pouring	mark
2	pouring	pour	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	boiling	boil	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 water	amod
4	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pouring	obj
5	upon	upon	ADP	_	9 lid	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 lid	det
7	chest	chest	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 lid	compound
8	-	-	PUNCT	_	7 chest	punct
9	lid	lid	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pouring	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pour	gerund		boiling water				upon the chest lid	vn preparing-26.3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent water=Patient
2	boil	gerund							vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 3

By pouring boiling water upon the chest-lid while the wolf sat inside it

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 pouring	mark
2	pouring	pour	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	boiling	boil	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 water	amod
4	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pouring	obj
5	upon	upon	ADP	_	9 lid	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 lid	det
7	chest	chest	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 lid	compound
8	-	-	PUNCT	_	7 chest	punct
9	lid	lid	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pouring	obl
10	while	while	SCONJ	_	13 sat	mark
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 wolf	det
12	wolf	wolf	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 sat	nsubj
13	sat	sit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 pouring	advcl
14	inside	inside	ADP	_	15 it	case
15	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 sat	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	pour	gerund		boiling water		upon the chest lid	vn preparing-26.3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent water=Patient
2	boil	gerund					vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
3	sit	past	the wolf		lid		vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent inside it=Location

Option 4

By dropping hot coals into the chest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 dropping	mark
2	dropping	drop	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	hot	hot	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 coals	amod
4	coals	coal	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 dropping	obj
5	into	into	ADP	_	7 chest	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 chest	det
7	chest	chest	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 dropping	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drop	gerund		hot coals		the chest			vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent coal=Theme into chest=Destination

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/575-pg2306-part11/e1/