Exam question 1 · Looney Tunes: the real roadrunner and the real coyote

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the relative speeds of the greater roadrunner and the coyote.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts · What happens: select, establish, concern · To what, where: response, relative speeds

This is exam question 1 of lesson 122 «Looney Tunes: the real roadrunner and the real coyote» 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	xcomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 facts	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 facts	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 facts	amod
8	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 facts	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 speeds	det
11	relative	relative	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 speeds	amod
12	speeds	speed	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 concerning	obj
13	of	of	ADP	_	16 roadrunner	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 roadrunner	det
15	greater	great	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	16 roadrunner	amod
16	roadrunner	roadrunner	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 speeds	nmod
17	and	and	CCONJ	_	19 coyote	cc
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 coyote	det
19	coyote	coyote	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 roadrunner	conj
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response	consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the relative speeds of the greater roadrunner and the coyote		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus speed=Experiencer

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 roadrunner invariably outpaces the coyote by a considerable margin

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 roadrunner	det
2	roadrunner	roadrunner	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 outpaces	nsubj
3	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	4 outpaces	advmod
4	outpaces	outpace	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 coyote	det
6	coyote	coyote	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 outpaces	obj
7	by	by	ADP	_	10 margin	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 margin	det
9	considerable	considerable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 margin	amod
10	margin	margin	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 outpaces	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	outpace	present	the roadrunner	the coyote				by a considerable margin; invariably property	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The coyote is capable of more than twice the speed of the roadrunner and occasionally captures it

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 coyote	det
2	coyote	coyote	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 capable	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 capable	cop
4	capable	capable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 more	case
6	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	4 capable	obl
7	than	than	ADP	_	10 speed	case
8	twice	twice	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	10 speed	advmod
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 speed	det
10	speed	speed	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 capable	obl
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 roadrunner	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 roadrunner	det
13	roadrunner	roadrunner	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 speed	nmod
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 captures	cc
15	occasionally	occasionally	ADV	_	16 captures	advmod
16	captures	capture	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 capable	conj
17	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 captures	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the coyote					of more; than the speed of the roadrunner; capable property	tree rules
2	capture	present	the coyote not said here	coyote				occasionally property	vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

Option 3

The two species attain identical maximum speeds

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 species	det
2	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 species	nummod
3	species	species	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 attain	nsubj
4	attain	attain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	identical	identical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 speeds	amod
6	maximum	maximum	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 speeds	compound
7	speeds	speed	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 attain	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	attain	present	the two species	identical maximum speeds					vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent speed=Theme

Option 4

The coyote is incapable of capturing any species of bird

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 coyote	det
2	coyote	coyote	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 incapable	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 incapable	cop
4	incapable	incapable	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	SCONJ	_	6 capturing	mark
6	capturing	capture	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 incapable	acl
7	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	8 species	det
8	species	species	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 capturing	obj
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 bird	case
10	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 species	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the coyote	incapable					tree rules
2	capture	gerund	incapable not said here	any species of bird					vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent species=Theme

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/122-looney-tunes-real-roadrunner-and-coyote/e1/