Exam question 2 · The Jungle Book, The White Seal, part 19: Kotick mocks Sea…

What was the principal reason the other seals gave for failing to sympathize with Kotick?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: other seals · What happens: be, give, fail, not sympathize · To what, where: principal reason

This is exam question 2 of lesson 618 «The Jungle Book, The White Seal, part 19: Kotick mocks Sea Vitch, then searches the seas for a quiet island and finds men had been there first» 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 reason	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 reason	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 reason	det
4	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 reason	amod
5	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 seals	det
7	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 seals	amod
8	seals	seal	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 gave	nsubj
9	gave	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 reason	acl:relcl
10	for	for	SCONJ	_	11 failing	mark
11	failing	fail	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 gave	advcl
12	to	to	PART	_	13 sympathize	mark
13	sympathize	sympathize	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 failing	xcomp
14	with	with	ADP	_	15 Kotick	case
15	Kotick	Kotick	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 sympathize	obl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 reason	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is a	past		the principal reason		tree rules
2	give	past	the other seals	the principal reason not said here		vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
3	fail	gerund	the other seals not said here			vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
4	not sympathize	to-infinitive	the other seals not said here		with Kotick	vn empathize-88.2 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer with kotick=Stimulus

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

That they were all too young to fight the men then, and had no say in it.

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	6 young	nsubj
2	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 young	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 young	cop
4	all	all	ADV	_	6 young	advmod
5	too	too	ADV	_	6 young	advmod
6	young	young	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
7	to	to	PART	_	8 fight	mark
8	fight	fight	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 young	advcl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 men	det
10	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 fight	obj
11	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	8 fight	advmod
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 had	punct
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 had	cc
14	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 young	parataxis
15	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	16 say	det
16	say	say	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 had	obj
17	in	in	ADP	_	18 it	case
18	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 had	obl
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 young	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	That				all, young property	tree rules
2	fight	to-infinitive	That not said here	the men		then		vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Co-Agent
3	have	past		no say	say			vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent say=Patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

That none of them had witnessed the killing, which distinguished Kotick from his companions.

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	2 none	det
2	none	none	PRON	PronType=Neg	6 witnessed	nsubj:pass
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 them	case
4	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 none	nmod
5	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 witnessed	aux
6	witnessed	witness	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 killing	det
8	killing	killing	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 witnessed	obj
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 distinguished	punct
10	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 distinguished	nsubj
11	distinguished	distinguish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 killing	acl:relcl
12	Kotick	Kotick	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 distinguished	obj
13	from	from	ADP	_	15 companions	case
14	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 companions	nmod:poss
15	companions	companion	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 distinguished	obl
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 witnessed	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	witness	past · perfect · passive		none					tree rules
2	distinguish	past	the killing	Kotick				from Kotick's companions	vn distinguish-23.5-1 «NP V NP.theme PP.co-theme»: agent=Agent kotick=Theme from companion=Co-Theme

Option 3

They were all asleep at the time.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 asleep	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 asleep	cop
3	all	all	ADV	_	4 asleep	advmod
4	asleep	asleep	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	at	at	ADP	_	7 time	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 time	det
7	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 asleep	obl
8	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 asleep	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	They				time	all, asleep property	tree rules

Option 4

Kotick was too loud for them.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Kotick	Kotick	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 loud	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 loud	cop
3	too	too	ADV	_	4 loud	advmod
4	loud	loud	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 them	case
6	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 loud	obl
7	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 loud	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	Kotick					for them = they; loud property	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/618-pg236-part19/e2/