Exam question 2 · Magpies, geese, ponies and swans: animals that are not you…

Given that feeding a pony is permitted, ascertain the manner of feeding most likely to avert injury.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: that · What happens: give, feed, permit, ascertain, avert · To what, where: pony, manner, injury

This is exam question 2 of lesson 458 «Magpies, geese, ponies and swans: animals that are not your friends» of the everyday 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	Given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
2	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 feeding	nsubj
3	feeding	feed	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 Given	advcl
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 pony	det
5	pony	pony	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 permitted	nsubj:pass
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 permitted	aux:pass
7	permitted	permit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 feeding	ccomp
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 ascertain	punct
9	ascertain	ascertain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 permitted	xcomp
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 manner	det
11	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 ascertain	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 feeding	case
13	feeding	feeding	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 manner	nmod
14	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	15 likely	advmod
15	likely	likely	ADV	_	17 avert	advmod
16	to	to	PART	_	17 avert	mark
17	avert	avert	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 ascertain	advcl
18	injury	injury	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 avert	obj
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Given	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	give	participle				vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
2	feed	gerund	that			tree rules
3	permit	present · passive		a pony		vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: subject=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality
4	ascertain not said to happen	infinitive		the manner of feeding		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent manner=Topic
5	avert	to-infinitive		injury	likely property	tree rules

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

Holding the food between the fingertips

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Holding	hold	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 food	det
3	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Holding	obj
4	between	between	ADP	_	6 fingertips	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 fingertips	det
6	fingertips	fingertip	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Holding	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hold	gerund		the food		the fingertips			vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent food=Theme between fingertip=Location

Option 2

Offering the food from the feeder's mouth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Offering	offer	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 food	det
3	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Offering	obj
4	from	from	ADP	_	8 mouth	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 feeder	det
6	feeder	feeder	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 mouth	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 feeder	case
8	mouth	mouth	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Offering	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	offer	gerund		the food		the feeder's mouth			vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent food=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Presenting the food upon a flat open palm

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Presenting	present	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 food	det
3	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Presenting	obj
4	upon	upon	ADP	_	8 palm	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 palm	det
6	flat	flat	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 palm	amod
7	open	open	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 palm	amod
8	palm	palm	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Presenting	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	present	gerund		the food				upon a flat open palm	vn fulfilling-13.4.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent food=Theme

Option 4

Casting the food towards the animal's face

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Casting	cast	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 food	det
3	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Casting	obj
4	towards	towards	ADP	_	8 face	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 animal	det
6	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 face	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 animal	case
8	face	face	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Casting	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cast	gerund		the food		the animal's face			vn throw-17.1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent food=Theme towards face=Destination

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/everyday/458-magpies-geese-ponies-and-swans-animals-that-are-not-your-friends/e2/