Test 5 · How real mice survive: squeezing, climbing and hiding

What would happen to barn owls if all the mice in an area disappeared?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: mice · What happens: happen, disappear · To what, where: barn owls

This is test 5 of lesson 120 «How real mice survive: squeezing, climbing and hiding» 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	to	to	PART	_	6 owls	mark
5	barn	barn	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 owls	compound
6	owls	owl	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 happen	xcomp
7	if	if	SCONJ	_	14 disappeared	mark
8	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	10 mice	det:predet
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 mice	det
10	mice	mouse	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 disappeared	nsubj
11	in	in	ADP	_	13 area	case
12	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 area	det
13	area	area	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 mice	nmod
14	disappeared	disappear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	3 happen	advcl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would		barn owls					vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	disappear a condition, not said to happen	participle	all mice in a area						vn disappearance-48.2-1 «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.

The options

Option 1

They would start eating grass

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 start	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 start	aux
3	start	start	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	eating	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 start	xcomp
5	grass	grass	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 eating	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	start	would	They						vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
2	eat	gerund	They not said here	grass					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent grass=Patient

Option 2

They would grow bigger

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 grow	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 grow	aux
3	grow	grow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	bigger	big	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 grow	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	would	They					big property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

They would struggle to find enough food

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 struggle	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 struggle	aux
3	struggle	struggle	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 find	mark
5	find	find	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 struggle	xcomp
6	enough	enough	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 food	amod
7	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 find	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	struggle	would	They						tree rules
2	find	to-infinitive	They not said here	enough food					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent food=Topic

Option 4

Nothing, owls never eat mice

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	owls	owl	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	mice	mouse	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 eat	obj

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

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/120-how-real-mice-survive/t5/