Test 9 · ★★ · Madagascar: real lemurs, the aye-aye and the fossa

Why might there be lemurs doing a woodpecker's job, but no woodpeckers?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: lemurs, woodpecker · What happens: be, do, job · To what, where: lemurs, job

This is test 9 · ★★ of lesson 127 «Madagascar: real lemurs, the aye-aye and the fossa» 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	3 there	advmod
2	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 there	aux
3	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	root	root
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 lemurs	cop
5	lemurs	lemur	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 there	obl
6	doing	do	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 lemurs	acl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 woodpecker	det
8	woodpecker	woodpecker	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 job	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 woodpecker	case
10	job	job	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 doing	obj
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 woodpeckers	punct
12	but	but	CCONJ	_	14 woodpeckers	cc
13	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	14 woodpeckers	det
14	woodpeckers	woodpecker	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 lemurs	conj
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 there	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	is a	infinitive		lemurs but no woodpeckers	tree rules
2	do	gerund	lemurs but no woodpeckers not said here	a woodpecker's job	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent job=Eventuality
3	job		a woodpecker		nom job «act intransitive»: poss=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

Woodpeckers hate islands

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Woodpeckers	woodpecker	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 hate	nsubj
2	hate	hate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	islands	island	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 hate	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hate	present	Woodpeckers	islands					vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer island=Stimulus

Option 2

Lemurs scared all woodpeckers away

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Lemurs	lemur	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 woodpeckers	nsubj
2	scared	scared	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 woodpeckers	amod
3	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	4 woodpeckers	det
4	woodpeckers	woodpecker	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
5	away	away	ADV	_	4 woodpeckers	advmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

Woodpeckers were all eaten by hungry lemurs long ago, so none are left

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Woodpeckers	woodpecker	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 eaten	nsubj:pass
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 eaten	aux:pass
3	all	all	ADV	_	4 eaten	advmod
4	eaten	eat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 lemurs	case
6	hungry	hungry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 lemurs	amod
7	lemurs	lemur	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 eaten	obl
8	long	long	ADV	Degree=Pos	9 ago	advmod
9	ago	ago	ADV	_	4 eaten	advmod
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 left	punct
11	so	so	ADV	_	14 left	advmod
12	none	none	PRON	PronType=Neg	14 left	nsubj
13	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 left	aux:pass
14	left	leave	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 eaten	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat	past · passive	hungry lemurs	Woodpeckers				ago, all property	vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient
2	leave	present · passive		none					vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

No woodpeckers reached the island, so the aye-aye took on that way of life

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	DET	PronType=Neg	2 woodpeckers	det
2	woodpeckers	woodpecker	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 reached	nsubj
3	reached	reach	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 island	det
5	island	island	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 reached	obj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 took	punct
7	so	so	ADV	_	12 took	advmod
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 aye	det
9	aye	aye	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 aye	compound
10	-	-	PUNCT	_	9 aye	punct
11	aye	aye	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 took	nsubj
12	took	take	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 reached	conj
13	on	on	ADP	_	15 way	case
14	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	15 way	det
15	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 took	obl
16	of	of	ADP	_	17 life	case
17	life	life	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 way	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reach	past	no woodpeckers	the island					vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent island=Theme
2	take	past	the aye aye			that way of life			vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent on way=Destination

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/127-madagascar-real-lemurs/t9/