Exam question 3 · Myth check: do ostriches bury their heads in the sand?

Ascertain the aggregate number of toes possessed by two adult ostriches, given that each foot bears the number characteristic of the species.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, two adult ostriches · What happens: ascertain, possess, give · To what, where: aggregate number, toes, foot bears

This is exam question 3 of lesson 151 «Myth check: do ostriches bury their heads in the sand?» of the biology course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 number	det
3	aggregate	aggregate	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 number	compound
4	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 toes	case
6	toes	toe	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 number	nmod
7	possessed	possess	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 toes	acl
8	by	by	ADP	_	11 ostriches	case
9	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	11 ostriches	nummod
10	adult	adult	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 ostriches	amod
11	ostriches	ostrich	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 possessed	obl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 given	punct
13	given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 ostriches	acl
14	that	that	SCONJ	_	17 bears	mark
15	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	17 bears	det
16	foot	foot	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 bears	compound
17	bears	bear	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 given	obl
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 characteristic	det
19	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 characteristic	compound
20	characteristic	characteristic	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 bears	nmod
21	of	of	ADP	_	23 species	case
22	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	23 species	det
23	species	species	NOUN	Number=Plur	20 characteristic	nmod
24	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the aggregate number of toes		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent number=Topic
2	possess	participle		toes not said here	by two adult ostriches	vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot
3	give	participle	two adult ostriches not said here	each foot bears the number characteristic of the species		vn break_down-45.8 «NP 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 · ← Mova's choice

Sixteen

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sixteen	sixteen	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2

Twelve

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Twelve	twelve	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

Twenty

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Twenty	twenty	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Eight

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Eight	eight	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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/151-ostriches-and-heads-in-the-sand/e3/