Exam question 4 · Uncle Remus, Brer Bear's Swelled Head: Brer Rabbit tricks…
What was Brer Fox's reaction upon discovering Brer Rabbit's predicament?
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Brer reaction · What happens: be, discover · To what, where: Brer reaction, predicament
This is exam question 4 of lesson 584 «Uncle Remus, Brer Bear's Swelled Head: Brer Rabbit tricks Brer Bear into a bee-tree, then Brer Rabbit is caught in Mr. Man's trap» 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 | 6 reaction | nsubj |
| 2 | was | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 6 reaction | cop |
| 3 | Brer | Brer | PROPN | Number=Sing | 6 reaction | compound |
| 4 | Fox | Fox | PROPN | Number=Sing | 6 reaction | nmod:poss |
| 5 | 's | 's | PART | _ | 4 Fox | case |
| 6 | reaction | reaction | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 7 | upon | upon | SCONJ | _ | 8 discovering | mark |
| 8 | discovering | discover | VERB | VerbForm=Ger | 6 reaction | acl |
| 9 | Brer | Brer | PROPN | Number=Sing | 10 Rabbit | compound |
| 10 | Rabbit | Rabbit | PROPN | Number=Sing | 12 predicament | nmod:poss |
| 11 | 's | 's | PART | _ | 10 Rabbit | case |
| 12 | predicament | predicament | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 discovering | obj |
| 13 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 6 reaction | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is a | past | Fox's Brer reaction | tree rules | |||||
| 2 | discover | gerund | Fox's Brer reaction not said here | Brer Rabbit's predicament | vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent predicament=Topic |
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 danced in a circle and whooped at the sight of the rabbit's terrible trouble
The tree, 16 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 danced | nsubj |
| 2 | danced | dance | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | in | in | ADP | _ | 5 circle | case |
| 4 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 5 circle | det |
| 5 | circle | circle | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 danced | obl |
| 6 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 7 whooped | cc |
| 7 | whooped | whoop | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 danced | conj |
| 8 | at | at | ADP | _ | 10 sight | case |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 sight | det |
| 10 | sight | sight | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 whooped | obl |
| 11 | of | of | ADP | _ | 16 trouble | case |
| 12 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 13 rabbit | det |
| 13 | rabbit | rabbit | NOUN | Number=Sing | 16 trouble | nmod:poss |
| 14 | 's | 's | PART | _ | 13 rabbit | case |
| 15 | terrible | terrible | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 16 trouble | amod |
| 16 | trouble | trouble | NOUN | Number=Sing | 10 sight | nmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | dance | past | He | a circle | vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in circle=Location | ||||
| 2 | whoop speech: other | past | He not said here | the sight of the rabbit's terrible trouble | vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 3 | sight | the rabbit's terrible trouble | nom sight «cognition transitive»: of=patient | ||||||
| 4 | trouble | the rabbit | nom trouble «cognition transitive»: poss=agent |
Option 2
He showed a lot of real surprise
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 showed | nsubj |
| 2 | showed | show | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 4 lot | det |
| 4 | lot | lot | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 showed | obj |
| 5 | of | of | ADP | _ | 7 surprise | case |
| 6 | real | real | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 surprise | amod |
| 7 | surprise | surprise | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 lot | nmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | show | past | He | a lot of real surprise | vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent lot=Recipient |
Option 3
He hollered out loud and made the whole neighborhood come running to the gate to look
The tree, 16 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 hollered | nsubj |
| 2 | hollered | holler | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | out | out | ADV | _ | 2 hollered | advmod |
| 4 | loud | loud | ADV | _ | 2 hollered | advmod |
| 5 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 6 made | cc |
| 6 | made | make | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 2 hollered | conj |
| 7 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 9 neighborhood | det |
| 8 | whole | whole | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 9 neighborhood | amod |
| 9 | neighborhood | neighborhood | NOUN | Number=Sing | 6 made | obj |
| 10 | come | come | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 6 made | xcomp |
| 11 | running | run | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 6 made | advcl |
| 12 | to | to | ADP | _ | 14 gate | case |
| 13 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 14 gate | det |
| 14 | gate | gate | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 running | obl |
| 15 | to | to | PART | _ | 16 look | mark |
| 16 | look | look | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 11 running | advcl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | holler out speech: other | past | He | loud, out property | vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 2 | make | past | He not said here | the whole neighborhood | tree rules | ||||
| 3 | come | present | the whole neighborhood not said here | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | |||||
| 4 | run | gerund | He not said here | to the gate result | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme to gate=Result | ||||
| 5 | look | to-infinitive | He not said here | vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus |
Option 4 · ✓ the right answer
He expressed considerable astonishment
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 expressed | nsubj |
| 2 | expressed | express | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | considerable | considerable | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 4 astonishment | amod |
| 4 | astonishment | astonishment | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 expressed | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | express | past | He | considerable astonishment | vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent astonishment=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/584-pg2306-part20/e4/