Exam question 4 · Uncle Remus, A Case of Measles, part 32: Remus brags, gets…

What was the narrator's response upon hearing the chickens squalling on the morning in question?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: response, chickens · What happens: be, hear, squall · To what, where: chickens, question

This is exam question 4 of lesson 596 «Uncle Remus, A Case of Measles, part 32: Remus brags, gets sick, warns a poor family, and confesses to a murder that may not have happened» 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	root	root
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 narrator	det
4	narrator	narrator	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 response	nmod:poss
5	's	's	PART	_	4 narrator	case
6	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
7	upon	upon	SCONJ	_	8 hearing	mark
8	hearing	hear	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 response	acl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 chickens	det
10	chickens	chicken	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 hearing	obj
11	squalling	squall	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 chickens	acl
12	on	on	ADP	_	14 morning	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 morning	det
14	morning	morning	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 squalling	obl
15	in	in	ADP	_	16 question	case
16	question	question	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 squalling	obl
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	roles by
1	is a	past	the narrator's response				tree rules
2	hear	gerund	the narrator's response not said here	the chickens			vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer chicken=Stimulus
3	squall speech: other	gerund	the chickens not said here		question	morning	vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=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 took up his musket, crept out the back door, and went out

The tree, 13 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 took	nsubj
2	took	take	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	up	up	ADP	_	2 took	compound:prt
4	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 musket	nmod:poss
5	musket	musket	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 took	obj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 crept	punct
7	crept	creep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 took	conj
8	out	out	ADP	_	7 crept	compound:prt
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 door	det
10	back	back	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 door	compound
11	door	door	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 crept	obl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 went	punct
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 went	cc
14	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 took	conj
15	out	out	ADV	_	14 went	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	take up	past	he	his musket		vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent musket=Theme
2	creep out	past	he not said here	the back door		vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	go out	past	he not said here		out property	vn interact-36.6 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

he woke the children and took up his musket and went out to see

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 woke	nsubj
2	woke	wake	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 children	det
4	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 woke	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 took	cc
6	took	take	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 woke	conj
7	up	up	ADP	_	6 took	compound:prt
8	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 musket	nmod:poss
9	musket	musket	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 took	obj
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 went	cc
11	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 woke	conj
12	out	out	ADV	_	11 went	advmod
13	to	to	PART	_	14 see	mark
14	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 went	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	wake	past	he	the children		vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent child=Patient
2	take up	past	he not said here	his musket		vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent musket=Theme
3	go out	past	he not said here		out property	tree rules
4	see	to-infinitive	he not said here			vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

he took up his musket and went out

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 took	nsubj
2	took	take	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	up	up	ADP	_	2 took	compound:prt
4	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 musket	nmod:poss
5	musket	musket	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 took	obj
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 went	cc
7	went	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 took	conj
8	out	out	ADV	_	7 went	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	take up	past	he	his musket					vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent musket=Theme
2	go out	past	he not said here					out property	vn interact-36.6 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

he got up and fetched his shotgun

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 got	nsubj
2	got	get	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	up	up	ADP	_	2 got	compound:prt
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 fetched	cc
5	fetched	fetch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 got	conj
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 shotgun	nmod:poss
7	shotgun	shotgun	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 fetched	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	get up	past	he						vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer
2	fetch	past	he not said here	his shotgun					vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shotgun=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/596-pg2306-part32/e4/