Test 9 · ★★ · The old dog, the vet and the hardest goodbye

The vicar, speaking formally: «It is a grievous thing to lose a faithful companion, and there is no shame in tears.» What does he mean?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: vicar, shame · What happens: speak, be, lose, mean · To what, where: grievous thing, faithful companion · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 9 · ★★ of lesson 56 «The old dog, the vet and the hardest goodbye» 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: The vicar, speaking formally: «It is a grievous thing to lose a faithful companion, and there is no shame in tears.»

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 vicar	det
2	vicar	vicar	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 thing	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 speaking	punct
4	speaking	speak	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 vicar	acl
5	formally	formally	ADV	_	4 speaking	advmod
6	:	:	PUNCT	_	12 thing	punct
7	«	«	PUNCT	_	12 thing	punct
8	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 thing	nsubj
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 thing	cop
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 thing	det
11	grievous	grievous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 thing	amod
12	thing	thing	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
13	to	to	PART	_	14 lose	mark
14	lose	lose	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 thing	acl
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 companion	det
16	faithful	faithful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 companion	amod
17	companion	companion	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 lose	obj
18	,	,	PUNCT	_	21 is	punct
19	and	and	CCONJ	_	21 is	cc
20	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	21 is	expl
21	is	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 thing	parataxis
22	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	23 shame	det
23	shame	shame	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 is	nsubj
24	in	in	ADP	_	25 tears	case
25	tears	tear	NOUN	Number=Plur	23 shame	nmod
26	.	.	PUNCT	_	12 thing	punct
27	»	»	PUNCT	_	12 thing	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	speak speech: other	gerund	the vicar not said here			formally property	vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	is a in a quote	present	the vicar	a grievous thing			tree rules
3	lose in a quote	to-infinitive		a faithful companion			vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent companion=Eventuality
4	be in a quote	present	no shame in tears		there		vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: 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.

Sentence 2: What does he mean?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

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

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present · do-support	shame						vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Topic

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

It is very sad to lose a loyal pet, and crying is fine

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	4 sad	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 sad	cop
3	very	very	ADV	_	4 sad	advmod
4	sad	sad	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 lose	mark
6	lose	lose	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 sad	xcomp
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 pet	det
8	loyal	loyal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 pet	amod
9	pet	pet	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 lose	obj
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 fine	punct
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 fine	cc
12	crying	cry	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	14 fine	nsubj
13	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 fine	cop
14	fine	fine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 sad	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	present	It		sad property	tree rules
2	lose	to-infinitive		a loyal pet		vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pet=Eventuality
3	cry speech: express	gerund				vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	is	present			fine property	tree rules

Option 2

Crying in church is forbidden, even at a very sad service

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Crying	cry	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 forbidden	csubj:pass
2	in	in	ADP	_	3 church	case
3	church	church	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Crying	obl
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 forbidden	aux:pass
5	forbidden	forbid	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 service	punct
7	even	even	ADV	_	12 service	advmod
8	at	at	ADP	_	12 service	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 service	det
10	very	very	ADV	_	11 sad	advmod
11	sad	sad	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 service	amod
12	service	service	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 forbidden	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cry speech: express	gerund				church			vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in church=Location
2	forbid	present · passive	Crying						vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V S_ING»

Option 3

People should always hide their tears from everyone else

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	People	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 hide	nsubj
2	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 hide	aux
3	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	4 hide	advmod
4	hide	hide	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 tears	nmod:poss
6	tears	tear	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 hide	obj
7	from	from	ADP	_	8 everyone	case
8	everyone	everyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Tot	4 hide	obl
9	else	else	ADV	_	8 everyone	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hide	should	People	People's tears		everyone		always property	vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent tear=Patient from everyone=Beneficiary

Option 4

Pets are not really worth crying about, so dry your eyes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Pets	pet	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 worth	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 worth	cop
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 worth	advmod
4	really	really	ADV	_	5 worth	advmod
5	worth	worth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	crying	cry	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 worth	csubj
7	about	about	ADV	_	6 crying	advmod
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 dry	punct
9	so	so	ADV	_	10 dry	advmod
10	dry	dry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 worth	conj
11	your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 eyes	nmod:poss
12	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 dry	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	not is	present	Pets		worth property	tree rules
2	cry speech: express	gerund			about property	vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	dry	infinitive	Pets not said here	your eyes		vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient eye=Result

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/56-the-old-dog-the-vet-and-the-hardest-goodbye/t9/