Exam question 2 · The dog that wags at last, and the one that never does

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the significance of a muzzle upon a dog?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: significance

This is exam question 2 of lesson 459 «The dog that wags at last, and the one that never does» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 significance	det
10	significance	significance	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 muzzle	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 muzzle	det
13	muzzle	muzzle	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 significance	nmod
14	upon	upon	ADP	_	16 dog	case
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 dog	det
16	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 muzzle	nmod
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the significance of a muzzle upon a dog				of the following statements; accurately 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

The muzzle serves chiefly to keep the dog warm

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 muzzle	det
2	muzzle	muzzle	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 serves	nsubj
3	serves	serve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	chiefly	chiefly	ADV	_	3 serves	advmod
5	to	to	PART	_	6 keep	mark
6	keep	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 serves	advcl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 dog	det
8	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 keep	obj
9	warm	warm	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 keep	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	serve	present	the muzzle					chiefly property	vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent
2	keep	to-infinitive	the muzzle not said here	the dog				warm property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dog=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Persons should not touch the dog, and it may have bitten before

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 touch	nsubj
2	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 touch	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 touch	advmod
4	touch	touch	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 dog	det
6	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 touch	obj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 bitten	punct
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 bitten	cc
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 bitten	nsubj:pass
10	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 bitten	aux
11	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	12 bitten	aux
12	bitten	bite	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 touch	conj
13	before	before	ADV	_	12 bitten	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not touch	should	Persons	the dog					vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme dog=Co-Theme
2	bite	may · perfect · passive		dog				before property	vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 3

The dog is a puppy under training

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 dog	det
2	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 puppy	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 puppy	cop
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 puppy	det
5	puppy	puppy	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	under	under	ADP	_	7 training	case
7	training	training	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 puppy	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the dog	a puppy		training			tree rules

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

The dog is particularly eager to be stroked

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 dog	det
2	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 eager	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 eager	cop
4	particularly	particularly	ADV	_	5 eager	advmod
5	eager	eager	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	8 stroked	mark
7	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	8 stroked	aux:pass
8	stroked	stroke	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 eager	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the dog					eager, particularly property	tree rules
2	stroke	to-infinitive · passive	the dog not said here						vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»

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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