Exam question 2 · Russian Fairy Tales, The Fox and His Companions, part 40:…

What is the stated reason for the magpie surrendering his young ones to the fox?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: stated reason, magpie · What happens: be, state, surrender · To what, where: young ones, fox

This is exam question 2 of lesson 700 «Russian Fairy Tales, The Fox and His Companions, part 40: the fox tricks the magpie and the crow, then meets a bear who needs a mourner» 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	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 reason	det
4	stated	state	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 reason	amod
5	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
6	for	for	ADP	_	8 magpie	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 magpie	det
8	magpie	magpie	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 reason	nmod
9	surrendering	surrender	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 magpie	acl
10	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 ones	nmod:poss
11	young	young	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 ones	amod
12	ones	one	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 surrendering	obj
13	to	to	ADP	_	15 fox	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 fox	det
15	fox	fox	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 surrendering	obl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	roles by
1	is a	present	the stated reason for the magpie			tree rules
2	state speech: other	participle				vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
3	surrender	gerund	the magpie not said here	magpie's young ones	the fox	vn contribute-13.2-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent one=Theme to fox=Recipient

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

Fear that the fox would starve in the snow and then turn on all the birds

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fear	fear	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 starve	nsubj
2	that	that	SCONJ	_	6 starve	mark
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 fox	det
4	fox	fox	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 starve	nsubj
5	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 starve	aux
6	starve	starve	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 snow	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 snow	det
9	snow	snow	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 starve	obl
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 turn	cc
11	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	12 turn	advmod
12	turn	turn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 starve	conj
13	on	on	ADP	_	16 birds	case
14	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	16 birds	det:predet
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 birds	det
16	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 turn	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	starve	would	Fear			the snow			tree rules
2	turn	infinitive	Fear not said here				then	on all birds	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme on bird=Trajectory

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

Fear that the fox would cut down the nest tree

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fear	fear	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	that	that	SCONJ	_	6 cut	mark
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 fox	det
4	fox	fox	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 cut	nsubj
5	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 cut	aux
6	cut	cut	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Fear	acl
7	down	down	ADP	_	6 cut	compound:prt
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 tree	det
9	nest	nest	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 tree	compound
10	tree	tree	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 cut	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cut down	would	the fox	the nest tree					vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tree=Product

Option 3

Hope that the fox would spare the whole nest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Hope	hope	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	that	that	SCONJ	_	6 spare	mark
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 fox	det
4	fox	fox	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 spare	nsubj
5	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 spare	aux
6	spare	spare	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Hope	ccomp
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 nest	det
8	whole	whole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 nest	amod
9	nest	nest	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 spare	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hope	present							vn long-32.2 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
2	spare	would	the fox	the whole nest					vn bill-54.5 «NP V NP NP.asset»: agent=Agent nest=Asset

Option 4

Fear that the crow would fly down and take his children away forever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fear	fear	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 fly	nsubj
2	that	that	SCONJ	_	6 fly	mark
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 crow	det
4	crow	crow	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 fly	nsubj
5	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 fly	aux
6	fly	fly	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	down	down	ADV	_	6 fly	advmod
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 take	cc
9	take	take	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 fly	conj
10	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 children	nmod:poss
11	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 take	obj
12	away	away	ADV	_	9 take	advmod
13	forever	forever	ADV	_	9 take	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fly down	would	Fear					down property	vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	take away	infinitive	Fear not said here	crow's children				away, forever property	vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=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.

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