Exam question 3 · Uncle Remus, The Fate of Mr. Fox: a tattling sparrow gets…

By what stratagem did Brer Fox secure the attention of the tattling sparrow?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: stratagem, Brer, tattling sparrow · What happens: do, secure, attend · To what, where: attention

This is exam question 3 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	By	by	ADP	_	2 what	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
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	7 secure	nsubj
6	Fox	Fox	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 Brer	flat
7	secure	secure	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 did	ccomp
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 attention	det
9	attention	attention	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 secure	obj
10	of	of	ADP	_	13 sparrow	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 sparrow	det
12	tattling	tattling	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 sparrow	compound
13	sparrow	sparrow	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 attention	nmod
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 what	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	do	past	stratagem		tree rules
2	secure	past	Brer	the attention of the tattling sparrow	vn ensure-99 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition attention=Theme
3	attend		the tattling sparrow		nom attention «cognition intransitive»: of=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

He acted sweet and gave the bird some corn

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 acted	nsubj
2	acted	act	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	sweet	sweet	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 acted	xcomp
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 gave	cc
5	gave	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 acted	conj
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 bird	det
7	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 gave	obj
8	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	9 corn	det
9	corn	corn	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 gave	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	act	past	He					sweet property	vn act-114-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	give	past	He not said here	some corn	the bird				vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent bird=Recipient corn=Theme

Option 2

He feigned deafness and invited the bird closer to his big yellow tooth

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 feigned	nsubj
2	feigned	feign	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	deafness	deafness	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 feigned	obj
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 invited	cc
5	invited	invite	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 feigned	conj
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 bird	det
7	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 invited	obj
8	closer	close	ADV	Degree=Cmp	5 invited	advmod
9	to	to	ADP	_	13 tooth	case
10	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 tooth	nmod:poss
11	big	big	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 tooth	amod
12	yellow	yellow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 tooth	amod
13	tooth	tooth	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 invited	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	feign	past	He	deafness					vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent deafness=Patient
2	invite	past	He not said here		the bird			to bird's big yellow tooth; close property	vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bird=Recipient

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

He feigned deafness, yawned loudly, and invited the nosy bird to come closer and listen

The tree, 15 words

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 feigned	nsubj
2	feigned	feign	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	deafness	deafness	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 feigned	obj
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 yawned	punct
5	yawned	yawn	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 feigned	conj
6	loudly	loudly	ADV	_	5 yawned	advmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 invited	punct
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 invited	cc
9	invited	invite	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 feigned	conj
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 bird	det
11	nosy	nosy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 bird	amod
12	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 invited	obj
13	to	to	PART	_	14 come	mark
14	come	come	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 invited	advcl
15	closer	close	ADV	Degree=Cmp	14 come	advmod
16	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 listen	cc
17	listen	listen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	14 come	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	feign	past	He	deafness			vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent deafness=Patient
2	yawn	participle	He not said here			loudly property	vn nonverbal_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	invite	past	He not said here		the nosy bird		vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bird=Recipient
4	come	to-infinitive	He not said here			close property	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
5	listen	infinitive	He not said here				vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

He feigned deafness and invited the bird closer

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 feigned	nsubj
2	feigned	feign	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	deafness	deafness	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 feigned	obj
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 invited	cc
5	invited	invite	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 feigned	conj
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 bird	det
7	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 invited	obj
8	closer	close	ADV	Degree=Cmp	5 invited	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	feign	past	He	deafness					vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent deafness=Patient
2	invite	past	He not said here		the bird			close property	vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bird=Recipient

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/e3/