Exam question 4 · Abraham, Isaac and Jacob

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the conduct of Esau upon meeting Jacob after many years?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: conduct · What happens: follow, characteris, meet, conduct · To what, where: conduct, Jacob, Esau

This is exam question 4 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 conduct	det
10	conduct	conduct	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	12 Esau	case
12	Esau	Esau	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 conduct	nmod
13	upon	upon	SCONJ	_	14 meeting	mark
14	meeting	meet	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 conduct	acl
15	Jacob	Jacob	PROPN	Number=Sing	14 meeting	obj
16	after	after	ADP	_	18 years	case
17	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 years	amod
18	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 meeting	obl
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund					vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the conduct of Esau		of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	meet	gerund	the conduct of Esau not said here	Jacob	year		vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent jacob=Co-Agent
4	conduct			Esau			nom conduct «act transitive»: of=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

He declined to speak with his brother at all

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	2 declined	nsubj
2	declined	decline	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 speak	mark
4	speak	speak	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 declined	xcomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 brother	case
6	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 brother	nmod:poss
7	brother	brother	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 speak	obl
8	at	at	ADP	_	9 all	case
9	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	4 speak	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	decline	past	He						vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	not speak speech: other	to-infinitive	He not said here			all		with his brother	vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent»: agent=Agent with brother=Co-Agent

Option 2

He demanded payment in compensation for his loss

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	2 demanded	nsubj
2	demanded	demand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	payment	payment	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 demanded	obj
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 compensation	case
5	compensation	compensation	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 payment	nmod
6	for	for	ADP	_	8 loss	case
7	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 loss	nmod:poss
8	loss	loss	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 demanded	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	demand speech: request	past	He	payment		compensation		for his loss	vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme payment=Precondition

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

He embraced his brother rather than exacting vengeance

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	2 embraced	nsubj
2	embraced	embrace	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 brother	nmod:poss
4	brother	brother	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 embraced	obj
5	rather	rather	ADV	ExtPos=CCONJ	7 exacting	cc
6	than	than	ADP	_	5 rather	fixed
7	exacting	exact	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 embraced	conj
8	vengeance	vengeance	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 exacting	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	embrace	past	He	his brother					vn marry-36.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent brother=Co-Agent
2	exact	gerund	He not said here	vengeance					vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent vengeance=Theme

Option 4

He reclaimed his birthright by force of arms

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	2 reclaimed	nsubj
2	reclaimed	reclaim	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 birthright	nmod:poss
4	birthright	birthright	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reclaimed	obj
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 force	case
6	force	force	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reclaimed	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 arms	case
8	arms	arm	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 force	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reclaim	past	He	his birthright				by force of arms	vn steal-10.5 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent birthright=Theme

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.

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