Exam question 4 · The dog that wags at last, and the one that never does

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning an animal that fails to accept a person despite patient and kind conduct.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts, animal · What happens: select, establish, concern, fail, not accept · To what, where: response, animal, person

This is exam question 4 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	xcomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 facts	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 facts	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 facts	amod
8	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 facts	acl
10	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 animal	det
11	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
12	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	13 fails	nsubj
13	fails	fail	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 animal	acl:relcl
14	to	to	PART	_	15 accept	mark
15	accept	accept	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	13 fails	xcomp
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 person	det
17	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 accept	obj
18	despite	despite	ADP	_	22 conduct	case
19	patient	patient	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 conduct	amod
20	and	and	CCONJ	_	21 kind	cc
21	kind	kind	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 patient	conj
22	conduct	conduct	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 accept	obl
23	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response	consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	a animal		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus animal=Experiencer
4	fail	present	a animal			vn succeed-74-3-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
5	not accept	to-infinitive	a animal not said here	a person	despite patient conduct	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent person=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

They are remedied by increased force

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 remedied	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 remedied	aux:pass
3	remedied	remedy	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	6 force	case
5	increased	increase	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 force	amod
6	force	force	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 remedied	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	remedy	present · passive	increased force	They					vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent subject=Patient
2	increase	participle							vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

They prove that the person has secretly behaved cruelly towards the animal

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 prove	nsubj
2	prove	prove	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	8 behaved	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 person	det
5	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 behaved	nsubj:pass
6	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 behaved	aux
7	secretly	secretly	ADV	_	8 behaved	advmod
8	behaved	behave	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 prove	ccomp
9	cruelly	cruelly	ADV	_	8 behaved	advmod
10	towards	towards	ADP	_	12 animal	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 animal	det
12	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 behaved	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prove	present	They						vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	behave	present · perfect · passive		the person				towards the animal; cruelly, secretly property	tree rules

Option 3

They are impossible if treats are offered

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 impossible	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 impossible	cop
3	impossible	impossible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	7 offered	mark
5	treats	treat	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 offered	nsubj:pass
6	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 offered	aux:pass
7	offered	offer	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 impossible	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	They					impossible property	tree rules
2	offer a condition, not said to happen	present · passive		treats					vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: subject=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Such outcomes occur and do not signify failure on that person's part

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 outcomes	amod
2	outcomes	outcome	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 occur	nsubj
3	occur	occur	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 signify	cc
5	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 signify	aux
6	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	7 signify	advmod
7	signify	signify	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 occur	conj
8	failure	failure	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 signify	obj
9	on	on	ADP	_	13 part	case
10	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	11 person	det
11	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 part	nmod:poss
12	's	's	PART	_	11 person	case
13	part	part	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 signify	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	occur	present	Such outcomes						vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	not signify	present · do-support	Such outcomes not said here	failure		that person's part			vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot failure=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/everyday/459-the-dog-that-wags-at-last-and-the-one-that-never-does/e4/