Test 6 · ★ · The African savanna area: hippos, meerkats, ostriches, wil…

What would happen if an eagle flew over while the meerkats were digging?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: eagle, meerkats · What happens: happen, fly over, dig

This is test 6 · ★ of lesson 102 «The African savanna area: hippos, meerkats, ostriches, wild dogs and hyenas» of the biology 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 happen	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	7 flew	mark
5	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 eagle	det
6	eagle	eagle	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 flew	nsubj
7	flew	fly	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
8	over	over	ADP	_	7 flew	compound:prt
9	while	while	SCONJ	_	13 digging	mark
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 meerkats	det
11	meerkats	meerkat	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 digging	nsubj
12	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 digging	aux
13	digging	dig	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 flew	advcl
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	roles by
1	happen	would		vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	fly over a condition, not said to happen	past	a eagle	vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	dig	past · progressive	the meerkats	vn create-26.4-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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

The meerkats would stand still and wave

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 meerkats	det
2	meerkats	meerkat	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 stand	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 stand	aux
4	stand	stand	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	still	still	ADV	_	4 stand	advmod
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 wave	cc
7	wave	wave	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 stand	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	stand	would	the meerkats				still		vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	wave	present	the meerkats not said here						vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Nothing, eagles never eat meerkats

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	5 eat	obl:unmarked
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Nothing	punct
3	eagles	eagle	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 eat	nsubj
4	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	5 eat	advmod
5	eat	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	meerkats	meerkat	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 eat	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not eat	present	eagles	Nothing					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meerkat=Patient

Option 3

The guard would jump up and fight the eagle all on its own

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 guard	det
2	guard	guard	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 jump	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 jump	aux
4	jump	jump	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	up	up	ADV	_	4 jump	advmod
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 fight	cc
7	fight	fight	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 jump	conj
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 eagle	det
9	eagle	eagle	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 fight	obj
10	all	all	ADV	_	7 fight	advmod
11	on	on	ADP	_	13 own	case
12	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 own	nmod:poss
13	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 fight	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	jump up	would	the guard						vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	fight	infinitive	the guard not said here	the eagle		guard's own		all property	vn battle-36.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eagle=Co-Agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The guard would call and they would dive into the burrow

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 guard	det
2	guard	guard	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 call	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 call	aux
4	call	call	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 dive	cc
6	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 dive	nsubj
7	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 dive	aux
8	dive	dive	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 call	conj
9	into	into	ADP	_	11 burrow	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 burrow	det
11	burrow	burrow	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 dive	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	call	would	the guard						vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	dive	would	they			the burrow			vn meander-47.7 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme into burrow=Location

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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