Test 10 · Behind the scenes: a day with the keepers

A keeper notices one meerkat is eating less for three days running. Why does her diary help?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: keeper, one meerkat, three days, meerkat · What happens: notice, eat, run, do, help · To what, where: diary help · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 10 of lesson 109 «Behind the scenes: a day with the keepers» 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

Sentence 1: A keeper notices one meerkat is eating less for three days running.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 keeper	det
2	keeper	keeper	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 notices	nsubj
3	notices	notice	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	5 meerkat	nummod
5	meerkat	meerkat	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 eating	nsubj
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 eating	aux
7	eating	eat	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 notices	ccomp
8	less	less	ADV	Degree=Cmp	7 eating	advmod
9	for	for	ADP	_	11 days	case
10	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	11 days	nummod
11	days	day	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 eating	obl
12	running	run	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	11 days	acl
13	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 notices	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	when	other	roles by
1	notice	present	a keeper			vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
2	eat	present · progressive	one meerkat	day	less property	vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	run	gerund	three days not said here			vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «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: Why does her diary help?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	root	root
2	does	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Why	conj
3	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 help	nmod:poss
4	diary	diary	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 help	compound
5	help	help	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 does	obj
6	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 Why	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	present		meerkat's diary help					vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent help=Eventuality
2	help		meerkat						nom help «act transitive»: poss=agent

The options

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

It shows a small change early, so the vet can check

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	2 shows	nsubj
2	shows	show	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 change	det
4	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 change	amod
5	change	change	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 shows	obj
6	early	early	ADV	Degree=Pos	2 shows	advmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 check	punct
8	so	so	ADV	_	12 check	advmod
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 vet	det
10	vet	vet	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 check	nsubj
11	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 check	aux
12	check	check	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 shows	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	show	present	It	a small change				early property	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent change=Recipient
2	check	can	the vet						vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 2

It means the food is wrong for all the meerkats in the group

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	2 means	nsubj
2	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 food	det
4	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 wrong	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 wrong	cop
6	wrong	wrong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 means	ccomp
7	for	for	ADP	_	10 meerkats	case
8	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	10 meerkats	det:predet
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 meerkats	det
10	meerkats	meerkat	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 wrong	obl
11	in	in	ADP	_	13 group	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 group	det
13	group	group	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 meerkats	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	It						vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	is	present	the food					for all meerkats in the group; wrong property	tree rules

Option 3

Nothing, eating less is always fine

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	7 fine	nsubj
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 eating	punct
3	eating	eat	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 Nothing	conj
4	less	less	ADV	Degree=Cmp	3 eating	advmod
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 fine	cop
6	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	7 fine	advmod
7	fine	fine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat	gerund	Nothing not said here					less property	vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	is	present	Nothing					always, fine property	tree rules

Option 4

It proves the meerkat is greedy

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	2 proves	nsubj
2	proves	prove	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 meerkat	det
4	meerkat	meerkat	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 greedy	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 greedy	cop
6	greedy	greedy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 proves	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prove	present	It						vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent
2	is	present	the meerkat					greedy property	tree rules

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/biology/109-behind-the-scenes-a-day-with-the-keepers/t10/