Test 6 · ★ · Just So Stories (Rudyard Kipling), 1: How the Whale got hi…

True or false: the story says whales today never eat men or boys or little girls, because of the grating.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: story · What happens: say, not eat · To what, where: whales, men · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 6 · ★ of lesson 74 «Just So Stories (Rudyard Kipling), 1: How the Whale got his Throat» of the books course of Mova's primary school. 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	True	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
2	or	or	CCONJ	_	3 false	cc
3	false	false	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 True	conj
4	:	:	PUNCT	_	7 says	punct
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 story	det
6	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 says	nsubj
7	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 True	conj
8	whales	whale	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 says	obj
9	today	today	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 eat	obl:unmarked
10	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	11 eat	advmod
11	eat	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 says	ccomp
12	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 eat	obj
13	or	or	CCONJ	_	14 boys	cc
14	boys	boy	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 men	conj
15	or	or	CCONJ	_	17 girls	cc
16	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 girls	amod
17	girls	girl	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 men	conj
18	,	,	PUNCT	_	22 grating	punct
19	because	because	ADP	ExtPos=ADP	22 grating	case
20	of	of	ADP	_	19 because	fixed
21	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	22 grating	det
22	grating	grating	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 eat	conj
23	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 True	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	the story	whales					tree rules
2	not eat	present		men or boys or little girls			today		vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Patient

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 · ← Mova's choice

False: Kipling says whales eat men, but only in the old days before the grating

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	False	false	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 Kipling	amod
2	:	:	PUNCT	_	1 False	punct
3	Kipling	Kipling	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 says	nsubj
4	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	whales	whale	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 eat	nsubj
6	eat	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 says	ccomp
7	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 eat	obj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 days	punct
9	but	but	CCONJ	_	14 days	cc
10	only	only	ADV	_	14 days	advmod
11	in	in	ADP	_	14 days	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 days	det
13	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 days	amod
14	days	day	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 eat	obl
15	before	before	ADP	_	17 grating	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 grating	det
17	grating	grating	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 eat	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	False Kipling						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	eat	present	whales	men			before the grating; day		vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent man=Patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

True: that is the story's made-up reason

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	True	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 reason	amod
2	:	:	PUNCT	_	11 reason	punct
3	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	11 reason	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 reason	cop
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 story	det
6	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 reason	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 story	case
8	made	make	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 reason	amod
9	-	-	PUNCT	_	10 up	punct
10	up	up	ADP	_	8 made	compound:prt
11	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make up	participle							vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme
2	is a	present	that	the story's True made reason					tree rules

Option 3

False: whales eat only krill today

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	False	false	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 whales	amod
2	:	:	PUNCT	_	1 False	punct
3	whales	whale	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 eat	nsubj
4	eat	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	only	only	ADV	_	6 krill	advmod
6	krill	krill	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 eat	obj
7	today	today	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 eat	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat	present	False whales	krill			today		vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent krill=Patient

Option 4

True: because the grating stopped them, as every zoologist still agrees in 1900

The tree, 13 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	True	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
2	:	:	PUNCT	_	6 stopped	punct
3	because	because	SCONJ	_	6 stopped	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 grating	det
5	grating	grating	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 stopped	nsubj
6	stopped	stop	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 True	parataxis
7	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 stopped	obj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 agrees	punct
9	as	as	SCONJ	_	13 agrees	mark
10	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	11 zoologist	det
11	zoologist	zoologist	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 agrees	nsubj
12	still	still	ADV	_	13 agrees	advmod
13	agrees	agree	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 stopped	conj
14	in	in	ADP	_	15 1900	case
15	1900	1900	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	13 agrees	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	stop	past	the grating	them = they					vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality they=Eventuality
2	agree speech: agree	present	every zoologist			1900	still		vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/74-justso-whale-throat/t6/