---
title: Which action of the monkey directly caused the death of the old crab? — Japanese Fairy Tales, The Monkey and t… · tree and pragmatics
description: Which action of the monkey directly caused the death of the old crab? Exam question 2 of lesson 1373 «Japanese Fairy Tales, The Monkey and the Crab, part 33: the monkey eats the ripe persimmons and kills the crab» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics 
---

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# Exam question 2 · Japanese Fairy Tales, The Monkey and the Crab, part 33: th…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Which action of the monkey directly caused the death of the old crab?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 4 · **The right answer:** option 3 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** action, monkey, old crab · **What happens:** cause, act, die · **To what, where:** death

<!-- .vabout -->
This is exam question 2 of lesson 1373 «Japanese Fairy Tales, The Monkey and the Crab, part 33: the monkey eats the ripe persimmons and kills the crab» of the books 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](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/books/1373-pg4018-part33/#e2).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1373-pg4018-part33:e2:1
# text = Which action of the monkey directly caused the death of the old crab?
1	Which	which	DET	WDT	PronType=Int	2	det	_	_
2	action	action	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
3	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
4	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
5	monkey	monkey	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	2	nmod	_	_
6	directly	directly	ADV	RB	_	7	advmod	_	_
7	caused	cause	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
8	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	9	det	_	_
9	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obj	_	_
10	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
11	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	13	det	_	_
12	old	old	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	13	amod	_	_
13	crab	crab	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	7	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **cause** | past | which action of the monkey | the death of the old crab |  |  |  | directly *property* | vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition death=Patient |
| 2 | **act** |  | the monkey |  |  |  |  |  | nom action «act intransitive»: of=agent |
| 3 | **die** |  | the old crab |  |  |  |  |  | nom death «event intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .note -->
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 {#options}

### Option 1 {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
dropping a heavy branch on him

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1373-pg4018-part33:e2:o1:1
# text = dropping a heavy branch on him
1	dropping	drop	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	heavy	heavy	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	branch	branch	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
5	on	on	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **drop** | gerund |  | a heavy branch |  |  |  | on him *= he* | vn put\_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent branch=Theme on he=Destination |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
throwing a hard unripe fruit

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1373-pg4018-part33:e2:o2:1
# text = throwing a hard unripe fruit
1	throwing	throw	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
3	hard	hard	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
4	unripe	unripe	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	fruit	fruit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **throw** | gerund |  | a hard unripe fruit |  |  |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fruit=Theme |

### Option 3 · ✓ the right answer {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
striking him with an unripe persimmon

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1373-pg4018-part33:e2:o3:1
# text = striking him with an unripe persimmon
1	striking	strike	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
2	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	1	obj	_	_
3	with	with	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
4	an	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
5	unripe	unripe	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	6	amod	_	_
6	persimmon	persimmon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **strike** | gerund |  | him *= he* |  |  |  | with a unripe persimmon | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent he=Patient with persimmon=Instrument |

### Option 4 · ← Mova's choice {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
throwing a stone

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:1373-pg4018-part33:e2:o4:1
# text = throwing a stone
1	throwing	throw	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
2	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
3	stone	stone	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **throw** | gerund |  | a stone |  |  |  |  | vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stone=Theme |

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**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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- ← previous: [Japanese Fairy Tales, The Monkey and t…, exam 1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1373-pg4018-part33/e1/)
- next →: [Japanese Fairy Tales, The Monkey and t…, exam 3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1373-pg4018-part33/e3/)
- ↑ back to [Japanese Fairy Tales, The Monkey and the Crab, part 33: the monkey eats the ripe persimmons and kills the crab](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/1373-pg4018-part33/)