Test 8 · ★★★ · Myth check: do lemmings jump off cliffs?

Why would an Arctic fox mother have over ten cubs one year and only a few the next?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Arctic fox mother · What happens: have over · To what, where: ten cubs

This is test 8 · ★★★ 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	7 have	advmod
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 have	aux
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 mother	det
4	Arctic	arctic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 mother	amod
5	fox	fox	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 mother	compound
6	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 have	nsubj
7	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	over	over	ADV	_	9 ten	advmod
9	ten	ten	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	10 cubs	nummod
10	cubs	cub	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 have	obj
11	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	12 year	nummod
12	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 have	obl:unmarked
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 few	cc
14	only	only	ADV	_	16 few	advmod
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 few	det
16	few	few	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 have	conj
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 next	det
18	next	next	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 few	obl:unmarked
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	7 have	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have over	would	a Arctic fox mother	ten cubs			year		vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cub=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 · ← Mova's choice

The cubs from last year all came back

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cubs	det
2	cubs	cub	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 came	nsubj
3	from	from	ADP	_	5 year	case
4	last	last	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 year	amod
5	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 cubs	nmod
6	all	all	ADV	_	7 came	advmod
7	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	back	back	ADV	_	7 came	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	come back	past	the cubs from last year					all property	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Lemming numbers rose, then crashed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Lemming	lemming	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 numbers	compound
2	numbers	number	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 rose	nsubj
3	rose	rise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 crashed	punct
5	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	6 crashed	advmod
6	crashed	crash	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 rose	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	rise	past	Lemming numbers						vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	crash	past	Lemming numbers not said here				then		vn break-45.1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 3

It got warmer, so more cubs fit in the den

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	2 got	nsubj
2	got	get	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	warmer	warm	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	2 got	xcomp
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 fit	punct
5	so	so	ADV	_	8 fit	advmod
6	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	7 cubs	amod
7	cubs	cub	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 fit	nsubj
8	fit	fit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 got	parataxis
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 den	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 den	det
11	den	den	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 fit	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	get	past	It					warm property	vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer
2	fit	present	more cubs			the den			vn funnel-9.3-1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent in den=Trajectory

Option 4

Foxes just choose a number at random

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Foxes	fox	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 choose	nsubj
2	just	just	ADV	_	3 choose	advmod
3	choose	choose	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 number	det
5	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 choose	obj
6	at	at	ADP	_	7 random	case
7	random	random	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 choose	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	choose	present	Foxes	a number		random			vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP PP.source NP.asset»: agent=Agent number=Theme at random=Asset

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/t8/