Exam question 1 · Uncle Remus, The Fate of Mr. Fox: a tattling sparrow gets…

Which of the following describes how Brer Terrapin concluded the contest with Miss Meadows?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Brer · What happens: follow, describe, conclude · To what, where: contest

This is exam question 1 of lesson 578 «Uncle Remus, The Fate of Mr. Fox: a tattling sparrow gets eaten» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 describes	obj
2	of	of	SCONJ	_	5 describes	mark
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 following	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 describes	nsubj
5	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	9 concluded	advmod
7	Brer	Brer	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 concluded	nsubj
8	Terrapin	Terrapin	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 Brer	flat
9	concluded	conclude	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 describes	ccomp
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 contest	det
11	contest	contest	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concluded	obj
12	with	with	ADP	_	14 Meadows	case
13	Miss	Miss	PROPN	Number=Sing	14 Meadows	compound
14	Meadows	meadow	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 concluded	obl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 describes	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	describe	present				vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP to be ADJ»: agent=Agent which=Theme clause=Attribute
3	conclude	past	Brer	the contest	with Miss Meadows	vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality PP.subeventuality»: agent=Affector contest=Eventuality with meadow=Subeventuality

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

He ran off

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	2 ran	nsubj
2	ran	run	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	off	off	ADP	_	2 ran	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	run off	past	He						vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

He lost the prize

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	2 lost	nsubj
2	lost	lose	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 prize	det
4	prize	prize	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 lost	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lose	past	He	the prize					vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent prize=Eventuality

Option 3

He fastened the winnings to himself and left quietly

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	2 fastened	nsubj
2	fastened	fasten	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 winnings	det
4	winnings	winning	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 fastened	obj
5	to	to	ADP	_	6 himself	case
6	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	2 fastened	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 left	cc
8	left	leave	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 fastened	conj
9	quietly	quietly	ADV	_	8 left	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fasten	past	He	the winnings	himself = he				vn shake-22.3-2-1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent winning=Patient to himself=Co-Patient
2	leave	past	He not said here					quietly property	vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

He secured the prize about his person and departed

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	2 secured	nsubj
2	secured	secure	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 prize	det
4	prize	prize	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 secured	obj
5	about	about	ADP	_	7 person	case
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 person	nmod:poss
7	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 secured	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 departed	cc
9	departed	depart	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 person	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	secure	past	He	the prize				about his person	vn ensure-99 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition prize=Theme
2	depart	participle	He not said here						vn escape-51.1-1-1 «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/578-pg2306-part14/e1/