Exam question 4 · The Jungle Book, Mowgli's Brothers, part 13: Mowgli herds…

Which of the following accurately records the reason Mowgli gave for doubting the tales of ghosts and gods related by Buldeo?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: Mowgli, ghosts · What happens: follow, record, give, doubt, relate, tell · To what, where: reason, tales · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 4 of lesson 612 «The Jungle Book, Mowgli's Brothers, part 13: Mowgli herds the buffaloes and hears that Shere Khan is back» 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	4 following	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	4 following	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 following	det
4	following	follow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	6 records	advmod
6	records	record	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 following	advcl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 reason	det
8	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 records	obj
9	Mowgli	Mowgli	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 gave	nsubj
10	gave	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 reason	acl:relcl
11	for	for	SCONJ	_	12 doubting	mark
12	doubting	doubt	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 gave	advcl
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 tales	det
14	tales	tale	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 doubting	obj
15	of	of	ADP	_	16 ghosts	case
16	ghosts	ghost	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 tales	nmod
17	and	and	CCONJ	_	18 gods	cc
18	gods	god	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 tales	conj
19	related	relate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	14 tales	acl
20	by	by	ADP	_	21 Buldeo	case
21	Buldeo	buldeo	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 related	obl
22	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 following	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	record	present		the reason	accurately property	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
3	give	past	Mowgli	the reason not said here		vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
4	doubt	gerund	Mowgli not said here	the tales of ghosts and gods		vn judgment-33.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tale=Theme
5	relate	participle		the tales of ghosts and gods not said here	by Buldeo	vn relate-86.2-2 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme
6	tell		ghosts			nom tale «communication intransitive»: of=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

Buldeo lied about ghosts

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Buldeo	Buldeo	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 lied	nsubj
2	lied	lie	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	about	about	ADP	_	4 ghosts	case
4	ghosts	ghost	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 lied	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lie	past	Buldeo					about ghosts	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent about ghost=Location

Option 2

Gods had never spoken to the herd boys

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Gods	god	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 spoken	nsubj:pass
2	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 spoken	aux
3	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	4 spoken	advmod
4	spoken	speak	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	to	to	ADP	_	8 boys	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 boys	det
7	herd	herd	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 boys	compound
8	boys	boy	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 spoken	obl:agent

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not speak speech: other	past · perfect · passive	the herd boys	Gods					tree rules

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Buldeo had spoken no truth concerning the jungle

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Buldeo	Buldeo	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 spoken	nsubj:pass
2	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 spoken	aux
3	spoken	speak	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	5 truth	det
5	truth	truth	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 spoken	obj
6	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 truth	acl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 jungle	det
8	jungle	jungle	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 concerning	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	speak speech: other	past · perfect · passive		Buldeo					tree rules
2	concern	gerund	no truth not said here	the jungle					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus jungle=Experiencer

Option 4

The ghosts were only the grey-beards' talk

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 ghosts	det
2	ghosts	ghost	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 talk	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 talk	cop
4	only	only	ADV	_	10 talk	advmod
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 beards	det
6	grey	grey	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 beards	amod
7	-	-	PUNCT	_	6 grey	punct
8	beards	beard	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 talk	nmod:poss
9	'	's	PART	_	8 beards	case
10	talk	talk	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	the ghosts	the grey beards's talk					tree rules

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/612-pg236-part13/e4/