Exam question 3 · Russian Fairy Tales, The Fox and His Companions, part 40:…

By what method does the fox ultimately fail to secure the crow as his dinner?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · What happens: do, fail, not secure · To what, where: fox, crow

This is exam question 3 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	By	by	ADP	_	3 method	case
2	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 method	nsubj
3	method	method	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 does	obl
4	does	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 fox	det
6	fox	fox	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 does	obj
7	ultimately	ultimately	ADV	_	8 fail	advmod
8	fail	fail	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 does	advcl
9	to	to	PART	_	10 secure	mark
10	secure	secure	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 fail	xcomp
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 crow	det
12	crow	crow	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 secure	obj
13	as	as	ADP	_	15 dinner	case
14	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 dinner	nmod:poss
15	dinner	dinner	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 secure	obl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 does	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	do	present	the fox	by method	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fox=Eventuality
2	fail	present		ultimately property	vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
3	not secure	to-infinitive	the crow	as crow's dinner	vn ensure-99 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition crow=Theme

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

Escape by wing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Escape	escape	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	by	by	ADP	_	3 wing	case
3	wing	wing	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Escape	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	escape	imperative	you not said here					by wing	vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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

The crow escapes by hovering beyond his reach

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 crow	det
2	crow	crow	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 escapes	nsubj
3	escapes	escape	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	by	by	SCONJ	_	5 hovering	mark
5	hovering	hover	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 escapes	advcl
6	beyond	beyond	ADP	_	8 reach	case
7	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 reach	nmod:poss
8	reach	reach	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 hovering	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	escape	present	the crow						vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	hover	gerund	the crow not said here			crow's reach			vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme beyond reach=Location

Option 3

The fox drops him after the crow bites back

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 fox	det
2	fox	fox	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 drops	nsubj
3	drops	drop	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 drops	obj
5	after	after	SCONJ	_	8 bites	mark
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 crow	det
7	crow	crow	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 bites	nsubj
8	bites	bite	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 drops	advcl
9	back	back	ADV	_	8 bites	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drop	present	the fox	him = he					vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent he=Theme
2	bite back	present	the crow						vn swat-18.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent

Option 4

The crow flies off by hovering nearby

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 crow	det
2	crow	crow	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 flies	nsubj
3	flies	fly	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	off	off	ADP	_	3 flies	compound:prt
5	by	by	SCONJ	_	6 hovering	mark
6	hovering	hover	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 flies	advcl
7	nearby	nearby	ADV	_	6 hovering	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fly off	present	the crow						vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	hover	gerund	the crow not said here					nearby property	vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=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/700-pg2435-part40/e3/