Test 8 · The Golden Rule in many traditions

A judge asks: "If the Golden Rule is everywhere, why do people still do wrong?" What is the best reply?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: judge, Golden Rule, people, best reply · What happens: ask, be, do · To what, where: wrong · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 8 of lesson 38 «The Golden Rule in many traditions» of the religion ethics 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: A judge asks: "If the Golden Rule is everywhere, why do people still do wrong?"

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 judge	det
2	judge	judge	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 asks	nsubj
3	asks	ask	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	:	:	PUNCT	_	3 asks	punct
5	"	"	PUNCT	_	11 everywhere	punct
6	If	if	SCONJ	_	11 everywhere	mark
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 Rule	det
8	Golden	golden	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 Rule	amod
9	Rule	Rule	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 everywhere	nsubj
10	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 everywhere	cop
11	everywhere	everywhere	ADV	PronType=Tot	17 do	advmod
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 do	punct
13	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	17 do	advmod
14	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	17 do	aux
15	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	17 do	nsubj
16	still	still	ADV	_	17 do	advmod
17	do	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 asks	advcl
18	wrong	wrong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 do	obj
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 asks	punct
20	"	"	PUNCT	_	3 asks	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	ask speech: ask	present	a judge				vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	is a condition, not said to happen, in a quote	present	the Golden Rule			everywhere property	tree rules
3	do in a quote	present · do-support	people	wrong	still		vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wrong=Eventuality

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 is the best reply?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 reply	det
4	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	5 reply	amod
5	reply	reply	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
6	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

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

The options

Option 1

Because only some countries were ever told about the Golden Rule at all

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	7 told	mark
2	only	only	ADV	_	4 countries	advmod
3	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	4 countries	det
4	countries	country	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 told	nsubj:pass
5	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 told	aux:pass
6	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	7 told	advmod
7	told	tell	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
8	about	about	ADP	_	11 Rule	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 Rule	det
10	Golden	golden	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 Rule	amod
11	Rule	Rule	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 told	obl
12	at	at	ADP	_	13 all	case
13	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 told	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	past · passive		some countries		all	ever	about the Golden Rule	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: subject=Recipient about rule=Topic

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Knowing a rule is not the same as living it; it takes practice

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Knowing	know	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 same	csubj
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 rule	det
3	rule	rule	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Knowing	obj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 same	cop
5	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	7 same	advmod
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 same	det
7	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
8	as	as	SCONJ	_	9 living	mark
9	living	live	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 same	advcl
10	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 living	obj
11	;	;	PUNCT	_	13 takes	punct
12	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 takes	nsubj
13	takes	take	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 same	parataxis
14	practice	practice	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 takes	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	know	gerund		a rule		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer rule=Stimulus
2	not is	present	Knowing		same property	tree rules
3	live	gerund	Knowing not said here	rule		vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme it=Location
4	take	present	it	practice		vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent practice=Theme

Option 3

Because the rule is only meant for festivals and holidays, not normal days

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	6 meant	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 rule	det
3	rule	rule	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 meant	nsubj:pass
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 meant	aux:pass
5	only	only	ADV	_	6 meant	advmod
6	meant	mean	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	for	for	ADP	_	8 festivals	case
8	festivals	festival	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 meant	obl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 holidays	cc
10	holidays	holiday	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 festivals	conj
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 days	punct
12	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	14 days	advmod
13	normal	normal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 days	amod
14	days	day	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 festivals	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present · passive		the rule				for festivals and holidays and normal days	vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Theme for festival=Attribute

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

Because the rule is wrong, so people are right to ignore it most of the time

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	5 wrong	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 rule	det
3	rule	rule	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 wrong	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 wrong	cop
5	wrong	wrong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 right	advcl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 wrong	punct
7	so	so	ADV	_	10 right	advmod
8	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 right	nsubj
9	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 right	cop
10	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
11	to	to	PART	_	12 ignore	mark
12	ignore	ignore	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 right	csubj
13	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 ignore	obj
14	most	most	ADJ	Degree=Sup	12 ignore	obj
15	of	of	ADP	_	17 time	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 time	det
17	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 most	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	present	the rule		wrong property	tree rules
2	is	present	people		right property	tree rules
3	ignore	to-infinitive		rule		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/religion-ethics/38-the-golden-rule-in-many-traditions/t8/