Exam question 3 · Psalms and Proverbs

Identify the principal teaching conveyed by the maxim «A gentle answer turneth away wrath».

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, gentle answer · What happens: identify, convey, turn away · To what, where: principal teaching, wrath · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 3 of lesson 11 «Psalms and Proverbs» of the religion ethics 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 teaching	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 teaching	amod
4	teaching	teaching	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	conveyed	convey	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 teaching	acl
6	by	by	ADP	_	8 maxim	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 maxim	det
8	maxim	maxim	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 conveyed	obl
9	«	«	PUNCT	_	13 turneth	punct
10	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 answer	det
11	gentle	gentle	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 answer	amod
12	answer	answer	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 turneth	nsubj
13	turneth	turn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Style=Arch Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 conveyed	parataxis
14	away	away	ADV	_	13 turneth	advmod
15	wrath	wrath	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 turneth	obj
16	»	»	PUNCT	_	13 turneth	punct
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal teaching		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent teaching=Theme
2	convey	participle		the principal teaching not said here	by the maxim	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	turn away in a quote	present	a gentle answer	wrath	away property	vn banish-10.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wrath=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 · ← Mova's choice

That no reply ought ever to be given

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 reply	det
2	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	3 reply	det
3	reply	reply	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 given	nsubj:pass
4	ought	ought	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 given	aux
5	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	8 given	advmod
6	to	to	PART	_	8 given	mark
7	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	8 given	aux:pass
8	given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	give	ought · passive		that reply			ever		vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 2

That anger ought to be met with silence forever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	2 anger	det
2	anger	anger	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 met	nsubj:pass
3	ought	ought	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 met	aux
4	to	to	PART	_	6 met	mark
5	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 met	aux:pass
6	met	meet	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	with	with	ADP	_	8 silence	case
8	silence	silence	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 met	obl
9	forever	forever	ADV	_	6 met	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	meet	ought · passive		that anger				with silence; forever property	vn satisfy-55.7 «NP V NP PP»: subject=Theme with silence=Instrument

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

That a mild reply tends to diminish anger

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	5 tends	nsubj
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 reply	det
3	mild	mild	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reply	amod
4	reply	reply	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 tends	nsubj
5	tends	tend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 diminish	mark
7	diminish	diminish	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 tends	xcomp
8	anger	anger	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 diminish	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tend	present	That						tree rules
2	diminish	to-infinitive	That not said here	anger					vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Causer anger=Patient

Option 4

That the meek invariably prevail in disputes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 meek	nsubj
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 meek	det
3	meek	meek	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	5 prevail	advmod
5	prevail	prevail	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 meek	acl:relcl
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 disputes	case
7	disputes	dispute	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 prevail	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prevail	present				disputes		invariably property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in dispute=Location

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/religion-ethics/11-psalms-and-proverbs/e3/