Test 10 · Myth check: do ostriches bury their heads in the sand?

Why might a lying-down ostrich be safer than a standing one?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: lying ostrich · What happens: be, stand

This is test 10 of lesson 151 «Myth check: do ostriches bury their heads in the sand?» 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	9 safer	advmod
2	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 safer	aux
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 ostrich	det
4	lying	lying	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 ostrich	compound
5	-	-	PUNCT	_	6 down	punct
6	down	down	ADP	_	4 lying	compound:prt
7	ostrich	ostrich	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 safer	nsubj
8	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	9 safer	cop
9	safer	safe	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
10	than	than	ADP	_	13 one	case
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 one	det
12	standing	stand	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	13 one	amod
13	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 safer	obl
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	9 safer	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	might	a lying ostrich					than a standing one; safe property	tree rules
2	stand	gerund							vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=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

Lions never eat birds that are lying down, because they think they are dead

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Lions	lion	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 eat	nsubj
2	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	3 eat	advmod
3	eat	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 eat	obj
5	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 lying	nsubj
6	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 lying	aux
7	lying	lie	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 birds	acl:relcl
8	down	down	ADV	_	7 lying	advmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 think	punct
10	because	because	SCONJ	_	12 think	mark
11	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 think	nsubj
12	think	think	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 eat	conj
13	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 dead	nsubj
14	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 dead	cop
15	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 think	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	not eat	present	Lions	birds		vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bird=Patient
2	lie down	present · progressive	birds		down property	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	think speech: other	present	Lions = lion			vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	is	present	Lions = lion		dead property	tree rules

Option 2

It can kick better lying down

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	3 kick	nsubj
2	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 kick	aux
3	kick	kick	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	better	good	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 kick	xcomp
5	lying	lie	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 kick	advcl
6	down	down	ADV	_	5 lying	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	kick	can	It					good property	vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient
2	lie down	gerund						down property	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

It is closer to its buried head

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	3 closer	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 closer	cop
3	closer	close	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	7 head	case
5	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 head	nmod:poss
6	buried	bury	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 head	amod
7	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 closer	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					to its buried head; close property	tree rules
2	bury	participle							vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

A big bird flat on the ground is much harder to spot from far away

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 bird	det
2	big	big	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 bird	amod
3	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 harder	nsubj
4	flat	flat	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 bird	amod
5	on	on	ADP	_	7 ground	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 ground	det
7	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 bird	nmod
8	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 harder	cop
9	much	much	ADV	_	10 harder	advmod
10	harder	hard	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
11	to	to	PART	_	12 spot	mark
12	spot	spot	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 harder	xcomp
13	from	from	ADP	_	14 far	case
14	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	12 spot	advmod
15	away	away	ADV	_	14 far	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	a big bird on the ground					hard property	tree rules
2	spot	to-infinitive	a big bird on the ground not said here					far property	vn weather-57 «It V PP.theme»

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/t10/