Test 8 · Marty, Gloria and Melman: real zebras, hippos and giraffes

What would happen if a lion tried to grab a zebra from behind?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: lion · What happens: happen, try, grab · To what, where: zebra

This is test 8 of lesson 128 «Marty, Gloria and Melman: real zebras, hippos and giraffes» 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	if	if	SCONJ	_	7 tried	mark
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 lion	det
6	lion	lion	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 tried	nsubj
7	tried	try	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
8	to	to	PART	_	9 grab	mark
9	grab	grab	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 tried	xcomp
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 zebra	det
11	zebra	zebra	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 grab	obj
12	from	from	ADP	_	13 behind	case
13	behind	behind	ADV	_	9 grab	obl
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	happen	would			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	try a condition, not said to happen	past	a lion		vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
3	grab not said to happen	to-infinitive	a lion not said here	a zebra	vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent zebra=Theme from behind=Source

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

The lion would always win easily

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 lion	det
2	lion	lion	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 win	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 win	aux
4	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	5 win	advmod
5	win	win	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	easily	easily	ADV	_	5 win	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	win	would	the lion					always, easily property	vn succeed-74-2 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

The zebra would lie down

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 zebra	det
2	zebra	zebra	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 lie	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 lie	aux
4	lie	lie	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	down	down	ADV	_	4 lie	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lie down	would	the zebra					down property	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

The zebra would climb up a tree to get away from it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 zebra	det
2	zebra	zebra	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 climb	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 climb	aux
4	climb	climb	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	up	up	ADP	_	4 climb	compound:prt
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 tree	det
7	tree	tree	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 climb	obj
8	to	to	PART	_	9 get	mark
9	get	get	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 climb	advcl
10	away	away	ADV	_	9 get	advmod
11	from	from	ADP	_	12 it	case
12	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 get	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	climb up	would	the zebra	a tree					vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial_Location tree=Theme
2	get away	to-infinitive	the zebra not said here					from zebra; away property	vn withdraw-82-2 «NP V PP.source»: agent=Agent from it=Source

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

It could get a kick hard enough to break its jaw

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	3 get	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 get	aux
3	get	get	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 kick	det
5	kick	kick	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 get	obj
6	hard	hard	ADV	Degree=Pos	3 get	advmod
7	enough	enough	ADV	_	6 hard	advmod
8	to	to	PART	_	9 break	mark
9	break	break	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 get	advcl
10	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 jaw	nmod:poss
11	jaw	jaw	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 break	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	get	could	It	a kick				hard property	vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer kick=Stimulus
2	break	to-infinitive		kick's jaw					vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer jaw=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/128-madagascar-real-zebras-hippos-and-giraffes/t8/