Test 5 · ★★★ · Myth check: do lemmings jump off cliffs?

«snow's freezing, how come lemmings don't freeze to death all winter» How do they survive?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: come lemmings, lemmings, snow · What happens: not freeze, survive, freeze

This is test 5 · ★★★ 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	«	«	PUNCT	_	4 freezing	punct
2	snow	snow	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 freezing	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 snow	case
4	freezing	freezing	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 freeze	advcl
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 freeze	punct
6	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	11 freeze	advmod
7	come	come	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 lemmings	amod
8	lemmings	lemming	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 freeze	nsubj
9	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 freeze	aux
10	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	11 freeze	advmod
11	freeze	freeze	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
12	to	to	ADP	_	13 death	case
13	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 freeze	obl
14	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	15 winter	det
15	winter	winter	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 freeze	obj
16	»	»	PUNCT	_	11 freeze	punct
17	How	how	ADV	PronType=Int	20 survive	advmod
18	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	20 survive	aux
19	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	20 survive	nsubj
20	survive	survive	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 freeze	advcl
21	?	?	PUNCT	_	11 freeze	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	when	other	roles by
1	not freeze in a quote	present · do-support	come lemmings	winter	to death	vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
2	survive	present · do-support	lemmings = lemming			vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	freeze in a quote		snow			nom freezing «process 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

Lemmings swim south in the autumn

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Lemmings	lemming	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 swim	nsubj
2	swim	swim	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	south	south	ADV	_	2 swim	advmod
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 autumn	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 autumn	det
6	autumn	autumn	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 swim	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	swim	present	Lemmings				autumn	south property	vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Snow traps air like a blanket, keeping the space under it near freezing point, not far colder

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Snow	snow	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 traps	nsubj
2	traps	trap	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 traps	obj
4	like	like	ADP	_	6 blanket	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 blanket	det
6	blanket	blanket	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 traps	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 keeping	punct
8	keeping	keep	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 traps	parataxis
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 space	det
10	space	space	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 keeping	obj
11	under	under	ADP	_	12 it	case
12	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 keeping	obl
13	near	near	ADP	_	15 point	case
14	freezing	freezing	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 point	amod
15	point	point	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 keeping	obl
16	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 colder	punct
17	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	19 colder	advmod
18	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	19 colder	advmod
19	colder	cold	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	2 traps	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	trap	present	Snow	air				like a blanket	vn trick-59.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent air=Patient
2	keep	gerund		the space		Snow		near freezing point	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent space=Theme under it=Location

Option 3

Lemmings grow thick shells in winter

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Lemmings	lemming	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 grow	nsubj
2	grow	grow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	thick	thick	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 shells	amod
4	shells	shell	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 grow	obj
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 winter	case
6	winter	winter	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 grow	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	present	Lemmings	thick shells			winter		vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location shell=Theme

Option 4

Lemmings sleep frozen solid inside the ice all winter without needing to breathe at all

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Lemmings	lemming	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 frozen	nsubj:pass
2	sleep	sleep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 frozen	aux:pass
3	frozen	freeze	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	solid	solid	ADV	_	3 frozen	advmod
5	inside	inside	ADP	_	7 ice	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 ice	det
7	ice	ice	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 frozen	obl
8	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	9 winter	det
9	winter	winter	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 frozen	obl:unmarked
10	without	without	SCONJ	_	11 needing	mark
11	needing	need	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 frozen	advcl
12	to	to	PART	_	13 breathe	mark
13	breathe	breathe	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 needing	xcomp
14	at	at	ADP	_	15 all	case
15	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	13 breathe	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	freeze	present · passive	Lemmings	the ice	winter	solid property	vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Result
2	need	gerund					vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
3	breathe not said to happen	to-infinitive		all			vn breathe-40.1.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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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