Exam question 2 · Uncle Remus, Brer Rabbit and Brer Buzzard, part 16: Rabbit…
What stratagem did Brer Fox employ to excuse his failure to devour the little rabbits?
Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: Brer · What happens: fox, excuse, devour, fail · To what, where: employ, failure, little rabbits
This is exam question 2 of lesson 580 «Uncle Remus, Brer Rabbit and Brer Buzzard, part 16: Rabbit tricks Buzzard into carrying him home from the island» 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 | What | what | PRON | PronType=Int | 5 Fox | obl |
| 2 | stratagem | stratagem | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 What | nsubj |
| 3 | did | do | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 5 Fox | aux |
| 4 | Brer | Brer | PROPN | Number=Sing | 5 Fox | nsubj |
| 5 | Fox | fox | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | root | root |
| 6 | employ | employ | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 Fox | obj |
| 7 | to | to | PART | _ | 8 excuse | mark |
| 8 | excuse | excuse | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 5 Fox | xcomp |
| 9 | his | his | PRON | Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 10 failure | nmod:poss |
| 10 | failure | failure | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 excuse | obj |
| 11 | to | to | PART | _ | 12 devour | mark |
| 12 | devour | devour | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 8 excuse | advcl |
| 13 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 15 rabbits | det |
| 14 | little | little | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 15 rabbits | amod |
| 15 | rabbits | rabbit | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 devour | obj |
| 16 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 5 Fox | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | fox | past · do-support | Brer | employ | tree rules | ||||
| 2 | excuse | to-infinitive | Brer not said here | Brer's failure | vn judgment-33.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent failure=Theme | ||||
| 3 | devour | to-infinitive | Brer not said here | the little rabbits | vn devour-39.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rabbit=Patient | ||||
| 4 | fail | Brer | nom failure «act intransitive»: 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
He invented impossible tasks
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 invented | nsubj |
| 2 | invented | invent | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | impossible | impossible | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 tasks | amod |
| 4 | tasks | task | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 invented | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | invent | past | He | impossible tasks | vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent task=Result |
Option 2
He made up tasks the young rabbits could not finish
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 made | nsubj |
| 2 | made | make | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 tasks | csubj |
| 3 | up | up | ADP | _ | 2 made | compound:prt |
| 4 | tasks | task | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 rabbits | det |
| 6 | young | young | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 rabbits | amod |
| 7 | rabbits | rabbit | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 finish | nsubj |
| 8 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 10 finish | aux |
| 9 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 10 finish | advmod |
| 10 | finish | finish | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 4 tasks | ccomp |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | make up | past | He | vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 2 | task | present | tree rules | ||||||
| 3 | not finish | could | the young rabbits | vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality |
Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer
He contrived a series of tasks which the young rabbits could not complete
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 contrived | nsubj |
| 2 | contrived | contrive | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 4 series | det |
| 4 | series | series | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 contrived | obj |
| 5 | of | of | ADP | _ | 6 tasks | case |
| 6 | tasks | task | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 series | nmod |
| 7 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 13 complete | obj |
| 8 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 rabbits | det |
| 9 | young | young | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 10 rabbits | amod |
| 10 | rabbits | rabbit | NOUN | Number=Plur | 13 complete | nsubj |
| 11 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 13 complete | aux |
| 12 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 13 complete | advmod |
| 13 | complete | complete | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 6 tasks | acl:relcl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | contrive | past | He | a series of tasks | vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent series=Result | ||||
| 2 | not complete | could | the young rabbits | tasks | vn complete-55.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=Eventuality |
Option 4
He invented a set of chores the young rabbits could not do
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 invented | nsubj |
| 2 | invented | invent | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 4 set | det |
| 4 | set | set | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 invented | obj |
| 5 | of | of | ADP | _ | 6 chores | case |
| 6 | chores | chore | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 set | nmod |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 rabbits | det |
| 8 | young | young | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 9 rabbits | amod |
| 9 | rabbits | rabbit | NOUN | Number=Plur | 12 do | nsubj |
| 10 | could | could | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 12 do | aux |
| 11 | not | not | PART | Polarity=Neg | 12 do | advmod |
| 12 | do | do | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 2 invented | advcl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | invent | past | He | a set of chores | vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent set=Result | ||||
| 2 | not do | could | the young rabbits | vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
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/580-pg2306-part16/e2/