---
title: What is the moral conveyed by the tale of the Woodman and Mercury? — Aesop for Children, The Woodman and Me… · tree and pragmatics
description: What is the moral conveyed by the tale of the Woodman and Mercury? Exam question 3 of lesson 372 «Aesop for Children, The Woodman and Mercury: an honest woodman gets all three axes» of the books course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each opti
---

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# Exam question 3 · Aesop for Children, The Woodman and Mercury: an honest woo…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What is the moral conveyed by the tale of the Woodman and Mercury?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 1 · right ✓ · **Who acts:** moral, Woodman · **What happens:** be, convey, tell · **To what, where:** moral · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is exam question 3 of lesson 372 «Aesop for Children, The Woodman and Mercury: an honest woodman gets all three axes» 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/372-pg19994-part11/#e3).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:372-pg19994-part11:e3:1
# text = What is the moral conveyed by the tale of the Woodman and Mercury?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	0	root	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
4	moral	moral	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	nsubj	_	_
5	conveyed	convey	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	acl	_	_
6	by	by	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
8	tale	tale	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	obl	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
11	Woodman	Woodman	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
12	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	13	cc	_	_
13	Mercury	Mercury	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | the moral |  |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 2 | **convey** | participle |  | the moral *not said here* |  |  |  | by the tale of the Woodman and Mercury | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |
| 3 | **tell** |  | the Woodman and Mercury |  |  |  |  |  | nom tale «communication 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 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Honesty is the best policy.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:372-pg19994-part11:e3:o1:1
# text = Honesty is the best policy.
1	Honesty	honesty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	5	amod	_	_
5	policy	policy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | Honesty | the best policy |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Patience is a true virtue.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:372-pg19994-part11:e3:o2:1
# text = Patience is a true virtue.
1	Patience	patience	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	true	true	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	5	amod	_	_
5	virtue	virtue	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | Patience | a true virtue |  |  |  |  | tree rules |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Greed never pays off well.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:372-pg19994-part11:e3:o3:1
# text = Greed never pays off well.
1	Greed	greed	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	3	advmod	_	_
3	pays	pay	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	off	off	ADP	RP	_	3	compound:prt	_	_
5	well	well	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	3	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **pay off** | present | Greed |  |  |  |  | well *property* | vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Honesty is the best policy in all things and at all times.

```conllu
# sent_id = question:books:372-pg19994-part11:e3:o4:1
# text = Honesty is the best policy in all things and at all times.
1	Honesty	honesty	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	5	nsubj	_	_
2	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	5	cop	_	_
3	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	5	det	_	_
4	best	good	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	5	amod	_	_
5	policy	policy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	0	root	_	_
6	in	in	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
7	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	8	det	_	_
8	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nmod	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
10	at	at	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
11	all	all	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	12	det	_	_
12	times	time	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	8	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	5	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **is a** | present | Honesty | the best policy |  | all things and all times |  |  | tree rules |

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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.

<!-- /div -->

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- ← previous: [Aesop for Children, The Woodman and Me…, exam 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/372-pg19994-part11/e2/)
- next →: [Aesop for Children, The Woodman and Me…, exam 4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/372-pg19994-part11/e4/)
- ↑ back to [Aesop for Children, The Woodman and Mercury: an honest woodman gets all three axes](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/372-pg19994-part11/)