Test 9 · ★ · Colds, coughs and the weather

Your big brother says, "Feed a cold, starve a fever, it's like a rule of medicine." What do you say?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: big brother, fever, you · What happens: say, feed, starve, be · To what, where: cold, fever · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 9 · ★ of lesson 4 «Colds, coughs and the weather» of the myths 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

Sentence 1: Your big brother says, "Feed a cold, starve a fever, it's like a rule of medicine."

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 brother	nmod:poss
2	big	big	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 brother	amod
3	brother	brother	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 says	nsubj
4	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 Feed	punct
6	"	"	PUNCT	_	7 Feed	punct
7	Feed	feed	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 says	ccomp
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 cold	det
9	cold	cold	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 Feed	obj
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 starve	punct
11	starve	starve	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 Feed	conj
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 fever	det
13	fever	fever	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 starve	obj
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 rule	punct
15	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 rule	nsubj
16	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	19 rule	cop
17	like	like	ADP	_	19 rule	case
18	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	19 rule	det
19	rule	rule	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 Feed	conj
20	of	of	ADP	_	21 medicine	case
21	medicine	medicine	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 rule	nmod
22	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 says	punct
23	"	"	PUNCT	_	4 says	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	Your big brother			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	feed in a quote	infinitive		a cold		vn feeding-39.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cold=Recipient
3	starve in a quote	infinitive		a fever		tree rules
4	is in a quote	present	fever		like a rule; of medicine	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.

Sentence 2: What do you say?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	4 say	obj
2	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 say	aux
3	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	4 say	nsubj
4	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 say	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present · do-support	you						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic

The options

Option 1 · ✓ the right answer

It's an old saying; with both you should drink and eat when hungry

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	5 saying	nsubj
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 saying	cop
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 saying	det
4	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 saying	amod
5	saying	saying	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	;	;	PUNCT	_	11 drink	punct
7	with	with	ADP	_	8 both	case
8	both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	11 drink	obl
9	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	11 drink	nsubj
10	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 drink	aux
11	drink	drink	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 saying	parataxis
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 eat	cc
13	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 drink	conj
14	when	when	SCONJ	_	15 hungry	mark
15	hungry	hungry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 eat	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a old saying		tree rules
2	drink	should	you		with both	vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	eat	infinitive	you not said here			vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

It only works for grown-ups

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 works	nsubj
2	only	only	ADV	_	3 works	advmod
3	works	work	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	for	for	ADP	_	7 ups	case
5	grown	grow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 ups	amod
6	-	-	PUNCT	_	5 grown	punct
7	ups	up	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 works	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	work	present	It					for grown ups	vn employment-95.3 «NP V PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent for up=Beneficiary
2	grow	participle							vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

He's right, and doctors still teach it to this day exactly as he says

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 right	nsubj
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 right	cop
3	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 teach	punct
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 teach	cc
6	doctors	doctor	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 teach	nsubj
7	still	still	ADV	_	8 teach	advmod
8	teach	teach	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 right	conj
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 teach	obj
10	to	to	ADP	_	12 day	case
11	this	this	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	12 day	det
12	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 teach	obl
13	exactly	exactly	ADV	_	16 says	advmod
14	as	as	SCONJ	_	16 says	mark
15	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 says	nsubj
16	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 teach	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	to whom	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	He			right property	tree rules
2	teach speech: other	present	doctors	it	still; day		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent it=Recipient clause=Topic
3	say speech: assert	present	he			exactly property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

It's the other way round: starve a cold

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	5 way	nsubj
2	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 way	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 way	det
4	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 way	amod
5	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	round	round	ADV	_	5 way	advmod
7	:	:	PUNCT	_	8 starve	punct
8	starve	starve	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	5 way	parataxis
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 cold	det
10	cold	cold	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 starve	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	the other way				round property	tree rules
2	starve	infinitive		a cold					tree rules

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/myths/4-colds-coughs-and-the-weather/t9/