Exam question 2 · Uncle Remus, Terrapin Shows His Strength, part 1: a bet at…

What prevents Brer Bear from moving Brer Terrapin during the tug-of-war?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · What happens: prevent, move · To what, where: Brer Bear, Brer

This is exam question 2 of lesson 582 «Uncle Remus, Terrapin Shows His Strength, part 1: a bet at the candy-pulling and a tug-of-war» 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	2 prevents	nsubj
2	prevents	prevent	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	Brer	Brer	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 Bear	compound
4	Bear	bear	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 prevents	obj
5	from	from	SCONJ	_	6 moving	mark
6	moving	move	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 prevents	advcl
7	Brer	Brer	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 moving	obj
8	Terrapin	Terrapin	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 Brer	flat
9	during	during	ADP	_	15 war	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 war	det
11	tug	tug	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 war	nsubj
12	-	-	PUNCT	_	15 war	punct
13	of	of	ADP	_	15 war	case
14	-	-	PUNCT	_	13 of	punct
15	war	war	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 moving	obl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 prevents	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prevent	present		Brer Bear					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer bear=Theme
2	move	gerund		Brer			during the war		vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V ADJ.result»: agent=Theme brer=Result

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 · ✓ the right answer

the cord anchored to a clay-root

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cord	det
2	cord	cord	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	anchored	anchor	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 cord	acl
4	to	to	ADP	_	8 root	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 root	det
6	clay	clay	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 root	compound
7	-	-	PUNCT	_	6 clay	punct
8	root	root	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 anchored	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	anchor	participle		the cord not said here				to a clay root	vn tape-22.4 «NP V ADV-Middle PP»: agent=Patient to root=Co-Patient

Option 2

the slippery mud on the bank

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 mud	det
2	slippery	slippery	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 mud	amod
3	mud	mud	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	on	on	ADP	_	6 bank	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 bank	det
6	bank	bank	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 mud	nmod

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

Option 3

the other animals holding on to the cord

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 animals	det
2	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 animals	amod
3	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
4	holding	hold	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 animals	acl
5	on	on	ADP	_	4 holding	compound:prt
6	to	to	ADP	_	8 cord	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 cord	det
8	cord	cord	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 holding	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hold on	gerund	the other animals not said here					to the cord	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

the heavy rope tied tight around his waist

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 rope	det
2	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 rope	amod
3	rope	rope	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	tied	tie	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 rope	acl
5	tight	tight	ADV	_	4 tied	advmod
6	around	around	ADP	_	8 waist	case
7	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 waist	nmod:poss
8	waist	waist	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 tied	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tie	participle		the heavy rope not said here		his waist		tight property	vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient

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/582-pg2306-part18/e2/