Test 4 · ★★★ · Myth check: do lemmings jump off cliffs?

What would happen to snowy owls in a year when lemming numbers crash?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: lemming numbers · What happens: happen, lemm, crash

This is test 4 · ★★★ of lesson 150 «Myth check: do lemmings jump off cliffs?» 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	to	to	ADP	_	6 owls	case
5	snowy	snowy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 owls	amod
6	owls	owl	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 happen	obl
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 year	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 year	det
9	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 happen	obl
10	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	13 crash	advmod
11	lemming	lemm	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	12 numbers	amod
12	numbers	number	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 crash	nsubj
13	crash	crash	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 happen	advcl
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would		year	to snowy owls	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	lemm	gerund				tree rules
3	crash	infinitive	lemming numbers			vn break-45.1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

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

Nothing at all would change for them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	5 change	nsubj
2	at	at	ADP	_	3 all	case
3	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	1 Nothing	nmod
4	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 change	aux
5	change	change	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	for	for	ADP	_	7 them	case
7	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 change	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	change	would	Nothing					for them = they	vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Many would raise few young or not nest at all

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 raise	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 raise	aux
3	raise	raise	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	few	few	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 young	amod
5	young	young	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 raise	obj
6	or	or	CCONJ	_	8 nest	cc
7	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	8 nest	advmod
8	nest	nest	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 raise	conj
9	at	at	ADP	_	10 all	case
10	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	8 nest	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	raise	would	Many	few young					vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent young=Theme
2	not nest	infinitive	Many not said here			all			vn berry-13.7 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

They would raise bigger families than ever, with more babies in each nest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 raise	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 raise	aux
3	raise	raise	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	bigger	big	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	5 families	amod
5	families	family	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 raise	obj
6	than	than	ADP	_	7 ever	case
7	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	3 raise	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 babies	punct
9	with	with	ADP	_	11 babies	case
10	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	11 babies	amod
11	babies	baby	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 raise	obl
12	in	in	ADP	_	14 nest	case
13	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	14 nest	det
14	nest	nest	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 raise	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	raise	would	They	bigger families		each nest		with more babies	vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent family=Theme in nest=Destination

Option 4

They would start eating grass

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 start	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 start	aux
3	start	start	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	eating	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 start	xcomp
5	grass	grass	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 eating	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	start	would	They						vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
2	eat	gerund	They not said here	grass					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent grass=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/150-myth-check-do-lemmings-jump-off-cliffs/t4/