Exam question 2 · Spike and Tom: real dogs and cats, enemies or friends?

Identify the principal reason for which a cat that is pursued by a dog customarily ascends a tree.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, dog, cat · What happens: identify, pursue, ascend · To what, where: principal reason, cat, tree

This is exam question 2 of lesson 121 «Spike and Tom: real dogs and cats, enemies or friends?» of the biology 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.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	16 ascends	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 cat	det
8	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 ascends	nsubj
9	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 pursued	nsubj
10	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 pursued	aux:pass
11	pursued	pursue	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 cat	acl:relcl
12	by	by	ADP	_	14 dog	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 dog	det
14	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 pursued	obl:agent
15	customarily	customarily	ADV	_	16 ascends	advmod
16	ascends	ascend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl
17	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 tree	det
18	tree	tree	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 ascends	obj
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	pursue	present · passive	a dog	a cat		vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme
3	ascend	present	a cat	a tree	for the principal reason; customarily property	vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme tree=Trajectory

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 · ← Mova's choice

The cat is thereby enabled to locate its own food, which it previously concealed among the branches

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cat	det
2	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 enabled	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 enabled	aux:pass
4	thereby	thereby	ADV	_	5 enabled	advmod
5	enabled	enable	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 locate	mark
7	locate	locate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 enabled	xcomp
8	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 food	nmod:poss
9	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 food	amod
10	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 locate	obj
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 concealed	punct
12	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	15 concealed	obj
13	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 concealed	nsubj
14	previously	previously	ADV	_	15 concealed	advmod
15	concealed	conceal	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 food	conj
16	among	among	ADP	_	18 branches	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 branches	det
18	branches	branch	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 concealed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	enable	present · passive		the cat		thereby property	tree rules
2	locate	to-infinitive	the cat not said here	cat's own food			tree rules
3	conceal	past	cat	cat's own food	the branches	previously property	vn concealment-16 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent which=Patient among branch=Location

Option 2

Dogs are universally afraid of elevated positions

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 afraid	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 afraid	cop
3	universally	universally	ADV	_	4 afraid	advmod
4	afraid	afraid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 positions	case
6	elevated	elevate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 positions	amod
7	positions	position	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 afraid	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Dogs					of elevated positions; afraid, universally property	tree rules
2	elevate	participle							vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The curved claws of the cat engage the bark, whereas the blunt claws of the dog do not

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 claws	det
2	curved	curve	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 claws	amod
3	claws	claw	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 engage	nsubj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 cat	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 cat	det
6	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 engage	obl
7	engage	engage	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 bark	det
9	bark	bark	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 engage	obj
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 claws	punct
11	whereas	whereas	SCONJ	_	14 claws	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 claws	det
13	blunt	blunt	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 claws	amod
14	claws	claw	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 engage	obl
15	of	of	ADP	_	17 dog	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 dog	det
17	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 claws	nmod
18	do	do	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	7 engage	conj
19	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	18 do	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	curve	participle				vn knead-26.5 «NP.material V PP.product»: agent=Material
2	engage	infinitive	the curved claws	the bark	of the cat; whereas the blunt claws of the dog	vn amalgamate-22.2-3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bark=Patient
3	not do	infinitive	the curved claws not said here			vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

The scent of trees is intolerable to the dog

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 scent	det
2	scent	scent	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 intolerable	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 trees	case
4	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 scent	nmod
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 intolerable	cop
6	intolerable	intolerable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
7	to	to	ADP	_	9 dog	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 dog	det
9	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 intolerable	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the scent of trees					to the dog; intolerable property	tree rules
2	scent			trees					nom scent «cognition transitive»: of=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/121-spike-and-tom-real-dogs-and-cats/e2/