Exam question 3 · Abraham, Isaac and Jacob

Ascertain the means by which, according to Genesis, Jacob obtained the birthright and blessing belonging to Esau.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, the, Genesis, blessing · What happens: ascertain, mean, accord, obtain, belong · To what, where: birthright, Esau · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 3 of lesson 4 «Abraham, Isaac and Jacob» 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 means	nsubj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Ascertain	ccomp
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 obtained	obl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 Genesis	punct
7	according	accord	VERB	ExtPos=ADP Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 Genesis	case
8	to	to	ADP	_	7 according	fixed
9	Genesis	Genesis	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 obtained	nsubj
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 Jacob	punct
11	Jacob	Jacob	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 Genesis	conj
12	obtained	obtain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 means	ccomp
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 birthright	det
14	birthright	birthright	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 obtained	obj
15	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 blessing	cc
16	blessing	blessing	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 birthright	conj
17	belonging	belong	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	16 blessing	acl
18	to	to	ADP	_	19 Esau	case
19	Esau	Esau	PROPN	Number=Sing	17 belonging	obl
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here			vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	mean	present	the			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	accord	gerund				vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent
4	obtain	past	Genesis and Jacob	the birthright and blessing		vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent birthright=Theme
5	belong	gerund	blessing not said here		Esau	vn attend-107.4-2 «NP V PP»: agent=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

By the voluntary and cheerful gift of Esau

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	6 gift	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 gift	det
3	voluntary	voluntary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 gift	amod
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 cheerful	cc
5	cheerful	cheerful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 voluntary	conj
6	gift	gift	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 Esau	case
8	Esau	Esau	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 gift	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	gift			Esau					nom gift «possession transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

By victory over Esau in single combat

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	2 victory	case
2	victory	victory	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	over	over	ADP	_	4 Esau	case
4	Esau	Esau	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 victory	nmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 combat	case
6	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 combat	amod
7	combat	combat	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 victory	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

By deception practised upon his brother and his father

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	2 deception	case
2	deception	deception	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	practised	practise	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 deception	acl
4	upon	upon	ADP	_	6 brother	case
5	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 brother	nmod:poss
6	brother	brother	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 practised	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 father	cc
8	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 father	nmod:poss
9	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 brother	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	practise	participle		deception not said here				upon his brother and his father	tree rules

Option 4

By lawful purchase from the father, Isaac

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	3 purchase	case
2	lawful	lawful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 purchase	amod
3	purchase	purchase	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	from	from	ADP	_	6 father	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 father	det
6	father	father	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 purchase	nmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 Isaac	punct
8	Isaac	Isaac	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 father	appos

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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/4-abraham-isaac-and-jacob/e3/