Exam question 4 · Uncle Remus, The Fate of Mr. Fox: a tattling sparrow gets…

Which sequence correctly describes the bird's movements upon Brer Fox's person?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: bird · What happens: sequence, describe, move · To what, where: movements

This is exam question 4 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	2 sequence	nsubj
2	sequence	sequence	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	correctly	correctly	ADV	_	4 describes	advmod
4	describes	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 sequence	advcl
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 bird	det
6	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 movements	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 bird	case
8	movements	movement	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 describes	obj
9	upon	upon	ADP	_	13 person	case
10	Brer	Brer	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 Fox	compound
11	Fox	Fox	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 person	nmod:poss
12	's	's	PART	_	11 Fox	case
13	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 movements	nmod
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 sequence	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	sequence	present				tree rules
2	describe	present		the bird's movements	upon Brer Fox's person; correctly property	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent movement=Theme
3	move		the bird		upon Brer Fox's person	nom movement «act transitive»: poss=agent upon=obl

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

Tail, then ear, then back, then nose

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 ear	punct
3	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	4 ear	advmod
4	ear	ear	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Tail	conj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 back	punct
6	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	7 back	advmod
7	back	back	ADV	_	1 Tail	advmod
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 nose	punct
9	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	10 nose	advmod
10	nose	nose	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Tail	conj

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Tail, then back, then head, then tooth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 back	punct
3	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	4 back	advmod
4	back	back	ADV	_	1 Tail	advmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 head	punct
6	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	7 head	advmod
7	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Tail	conj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 tooth	punct
9	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	10 tooth	advmod
10	tooth	tooth	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Tail	conj

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

Tail, then back, then head, then ear, then tooth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 back	punct
3	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	4 back	advmod
4	back	back	ADV	_	1 Tail	advmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 head	punct
6	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	7 head	advmod
7	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Tail	conj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 ear	punct
9	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	10 ear	advmod
10	ear	ear	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Tail	conj
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 tooth	punct
12	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	13 tooth	advmod
13	tooth	tooth	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Tail	conj

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

Tail, then head, then back, tooth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 head	punct
3	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	4 head	advmod
4	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Tail	conj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 back	punct
6	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	7 back	advmod
7	back	back	ADV	_	1 Tail	advmod
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 tooth	punct
9	tooth	tooth	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Tail	conj

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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/e4/