Test 8 · Bambi: real deer, rabbits, skunks and owls

Why might a great horned owl eat a skunk when foxes leave it alone?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: great horned owl, foxes · What happens: eat, leave · To what, where: skunk

This is test 8 of lesson 143 «Bambi: real deer, rabbits, skunks and owls» 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	7 eat	advmod
2	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 eat	aux
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 owl	det
4	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 owl	amod
5	horned	horned	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 owl	amod
6	owl	owl	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 eat	nsubj
7	eat	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 skunk	det
9	skunk	skunk	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 eat	obj
10	when	when	SCONJ	_	12 leave	mark
11	foxes	fox	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 leave	nsubj
12	leave	leave	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 eat	advcl
13	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 leave	obj
14	alone	alone	ADV	_	12 leave	advmod
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 eat	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat	might	a great horned owl	a skunk					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent skunk=Patient
2	leave	present	foxes	skunk				alone property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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

Skunks cannot lift their tails high enough to spray upwards at a bird in the air

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Skunks	skunk	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 lift	nsubj
2	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 lift	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 lift	advmod
4	lift	lift	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 tails	nmod:poss
6	tails	tail	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 lift	obj
7	high	high	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 tails	amod
8	enough	enough	ADV	_	7 high	advmod
9	to	to	PART	_	10 spray	mark
10	spray	spray	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 lift	advcl
11	upwards	upwards	ADV	_	10 spray	advmod
12	at	at	ADP	_	14 bird	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 bird	det
14	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 spray	obl
15	in	in	ADP	_	17 air	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 air	det
17	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 spray	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not lift	can	Skunks	Skunks's tails					vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tail=Theme
2	spray	to-infinitive	Skunks not said here			the air		at a bird; upwards property	vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme at bird=Destination

Option 2

Owls eat only animals that smell bad

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Owls	owl	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 eat	nsubj
2	eat	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	only	only	ADV	_	4 animals	advmod
4	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 eat	obj
5	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 smell	nsubj
6	smell	smell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 animals	acl:relcl
7	bad	bad	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 smell	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat	present	Owls	animals					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent animal=Patient
2	smell	present	animals					bad property	vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus

Option 3

Owls cannot see black and white

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Owls	owl	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 see	nsubj
2	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 see	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 see	advmod
4	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 see	xcomp
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 white	cc
7	white	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 black	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not see	can	Owls					black property	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer

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

The owl has a poor sense of smell, so the spray bothers it less

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 owl	det
2	owl	owl	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 has	nsubj
3	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 sense	det
5	poor	poor	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 sense	amod
6	sense	sense	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 has	obj
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 smell	case
8	smell	smell	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 sense	nmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 bothers	punct
10	so	so	ADV	_	13 bothers	advmod
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 spray	det
12	spray	spray	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 bothers	nsubj
13	bothers	bother	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 has	conj
14	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 bothers	obj
15	less	less	ADV	Degree=Cmp	13 bothers	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	have	present	the owl	a poor sense of smell		vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sense=Patient
2	bother	present	the spray	sense	less property	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus it=Experiencer
3	sense			smell		nom sense «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.

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