Test 2 · ★★ · Myth check: are elephants scared of mice?

In Dumbo, the elephant ladies shriek and climb on each other when Timothy the mouse appears. What is real?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: elephant ladies, Timothy · What happens: shriek, climb, appear, be · To what, where: Dumbo, each

This is test 2 · ★★ of lesson 149 «Myth check: are elephants scared of mice?» 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

Sentence 1: In Dumbo, the elephant ladies shriek and climb on each other when Timothy the mouse appears.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	In	in	ADP	_	2 Dumbo	case
2	Dumbo	Dumbo	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 shriek	obl
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 Dumbo	punct
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 ladies	det
5	elephant	elephant	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 ladies	compound
6	ladies	lady	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 shriek	nsubj
7	shriek	shriek	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 climb	cc
9	climb	climb	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 shriek	conj
10	on	on	ADP	_	11 each	case
11	each	each	DET	ExtPos=PRON PronType=Rcp	9 climb	obl
12	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 each	fixed
13	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	17 appears	advmod
14	Timothy	Timothy	PROPN	Number=Sing	17 appears	nsubj
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 mouse	det
16	mouse	mouse	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 appears	nsubj
17	appears	appear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 climb	advcl
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	7 shriek	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	roles by
1	shriek	present	the elephant ladies	Dumbo	vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in dumbo=Location
2	climb	present	the elephant ladies not said here	each	vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on each=Trajectory
3	appear	present	Timothy		vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=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.

Sentence 2: What is real?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 real	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 real	cop
3	real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 real	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present						real property	tree rules

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

Real elephants faint at the sight of mice, which is why zoos keep mice out of their enclosures

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 elephants	amod
2	elephants	elephant	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 faint	nsubj
3	faint	faint	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	at	at	ADP	_	6 sight	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 sight	det
6	sight	sight	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 faint	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 mice	case
8	mice	mouse	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 sight	nmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 why	punct
10	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 why	nsubj
11	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 why	cop
12	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	8 mice	acl:relcl
13	zoos	zoo	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 keep	nsubj
14	keep	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 why	advcl:relcl
15	mice	mouse	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 keep	obj
16	out	out	ADP	_	19 enclosures	case
17	of	of	ADP	_	19 enclosures	case
18	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	19 enclosures	nmod:poss
19	enclosures	enclosure	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 keep	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	faint	present	Real elephants			at the sight of mice	vn change_bodily_state-40.8.4 «NP V PP.stimulus»: agent=Experiencer at sight=Stimulus
2	is	present	mice			why property	tree rules
3	keep	present	zoos	mice	zoos's enclosures		vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent mouse=Theme out enclosure=Location
4	sight			mice			nom sight «cognition transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

Real elephants climb trees to escape mice

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 elephants	amod
2	elephants	elephant	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 climb	nsubj
3	climb	climb	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 climb	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 escape	mark
6	escape	escape	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 climb	advcl
7	mice	mouse	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 escape	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	climb	present	Real elephants	trees					vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial_Location tree=Theme
2	escape	to-infinitive	Real elephants not said here	mice					vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme mouse=Initial_Location

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Elephants may startle at any sudden small thing; there is no good evidence of a special fear of mice

The tree, 19 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Elephants	elephant	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 startle	nsubj
2	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 startle	aux
3	startle	startle	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	at	at	ADP	_	8 thing	case
5	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	8 thing	det
6	sudden	sudden	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 thing	amod
7	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 thing	amod
8	thing	thing	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 startle	obl
9	;	;	PUNCT	_	11 is	punct
10	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	11 is	expl
11	is	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 startle	conj
12	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	14 evidence	det
13	good	good	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 evidence	amod
14	evidence	evidence	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 is	nsubj
15	of	of	ADP	_	18 fear	case
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 fear	det
17	special	special	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 fear	amod
18	fear	fear	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 evidence	nmod
19	of	of	ADP	_	20 mice	case
20	mice	mouse	NOUN	Number=Plur	18 fear	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	startle	may	Elephants		any sudden small thing	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer
2	be	present	no good evidence of a special fear of mice		there	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	evidence			a special fear of mice		nom evidence «cognition transitive»: of=patient
4	fear			mice		nom fear «feeling transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

Real elephants chase mice to eat them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 elephants	amod
2	elephants	elephant	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 chase	nsubj
3	chase	chase	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	mice	mouse	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 chase	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 eat	mark
6	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 chase	advcl
7	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 eat	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	chase	present	Real elephants	mice					vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mouse=Theme
2	eat	to-infinitive	Real elephants not said here	mice = mouse					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=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/149-myth-check-are-elephants-scared-of-mice/t2/