Exam question 3 · Kipling's word games: «Best Beloved», the 'Stute Fish, «Hu…

Select the response consistent with the account given of the Camel's hump.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: select, give · To what, where: response, account

This is exam question 3 of lesson 42 «Kipling's word games: «Best Beloved», the 'Stute Fish, «Humph!» and the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo» of the language 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	3 response	amod
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 account	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 account	det
7	account	account	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 consistent	obl
8	given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 account	acl
9	of	of	ADP	_	13 hump	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 Camel	det
11	Camel	camel	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 hump	nmod:poss
12	's	's	PART	_	11 Camel	case
13	hump	hump	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 given	obl
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response					vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	give	participle		the account not said here				of the Camel's hump	vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=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

It is explained by the author as a consequence of his diet of thorns

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 explained	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 explained	aux:pass
3	explained	explain	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	6 author	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 author	det
6	author	author	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 explained	obl
7	as	as	ADP	_	9 consequence	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 consequence	det
9	consequence	consequence	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 explained	obl
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 diet	case
11	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 diet	nmod:poss
12	diet	diet	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 consequence	nmod
13	of	of	ADP	_	14 thorns	case
14	thorns	thorn	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 diet	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	explain speech: assert	present · passive	the author	It				as a consequence of his diet of thorns	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Topic

Option 2

It is described as a reservoir of water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 described	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 described	aux:pass
3	described	describe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	as	as	ADP	_	6 reservoir	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 reservoir	det
6	reservoir	reservoir	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 described	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 water	case
8	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 reservoir	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	describe	present · passive		It				as a reservoir of water	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: subject=Theme as reservoir=Attribute

Option 3

It is attributed to the burdens placed upon him by Man

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 attributed	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 attributed	aux:pass
3	attributed	attribute	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	to	to	SCONJ	_	7 placed	mark
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 burdens	det
6	burdens	burden	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 placed	nsubj
7	placed	place	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 attributed	advcl
8	upon	upon	ADP	_	9 him	case
9	him	he	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 placed	obl
10	by	by	ADP	_	11 Man	case
11	Man	Man	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 attributed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	attribute	present · passive	Man	It					tree rules
2	place	past	the burdens					upon him = he	vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent upon he=Destination

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It is the subject of a pun upon the Camel's habitual utterance «Humph!»

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 subject	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 subject	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 subject	det
4	subject	subject	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 pun	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 pun	det
7	pun	pun	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 subject	nmod
8	upon	upon	ADP	_	13 utterance	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 Camel	det
10	Camel	camel	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 utterance	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 Camel	case
12	habitual	habitual	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 utterance	amod
13	utterance	utterance	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 pun	nmod
14	«	«	PUNCT	_	15 Humph	punct
15	Humph	Humph	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 utterance	appos
16	!	!	PUNCT	_	15 Humph	punct
17	»	»	PUNCT	_	15 Humph	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	the subject				of a pun upon the Camel's habitual utterance	tree rules
2	utter		the Camel						nom utterance «communication transitive»: poss=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/language/42-kipling-s-word-games-best-beloved-stute-fish-humph-and-the-great-grey-green-greasy-limpopo/e3/