Test 11 · Myth check: do ostriches bury their heads in the sand?

«ostrich wings are just for show, right» What is right?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: ostrich wings, show · What happens: be

This is test 11 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	«	«	PUNCT	_	7 show	punct
2	ostrich	ostrich	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 wings	compound
3	wings	wing	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 show	nsubj
4	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 show	cop
5	just	just	ADV	_	7 show	advmod
6	for	for	ADP	_	7 show	case
7	show	show	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 right	nsubj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 show	punct
9	right	right	INTJ	_	13 right	discourse
10	»	»	PUNCT	_	9 right	punct
11	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	13 right	nsubj
12	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 right	cop
13	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	13 right	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is in a quote	present	ostrich wings					for show	tree rules
2	is	present	show					right property	tree rules

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

Yes, they do nothing at all

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	4 do	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 do	punct
3	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 do	nsubj
4	do	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	4 do	obj
6	at	at	ADP	_	7 all	case
7	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	4 do	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	present	they	nothing		all			vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Eventuality

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

They help it balance and steer when running, shade chicks and cool it on hot days

The tree, 16 words

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	2 help	nsubj
2	help	help	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 help	obj
4	balance	balance	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 help	xcomp
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 steer	cc
6	steer	steer	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 balance	conj
7	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	8 running	advmod
8	running	run	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 steer	advcl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 chicks	punct
10	shade	shade	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 chicks	compound
11	chicks	chick	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 balance	obl
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 cool	cc
13	cool	cool	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 help	conj
14	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 cool	obj
15	on	on	ADP	_	17 days	case
16	hot	hot	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 days	amod
17	days	day	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 cool	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	roles by
1	help	present	They	it		vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent it=Beneficiary clause=Theme
2	balance	infinitive		shade chicks		vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	steer	infinitive				vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
4	run	gerund				vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
5	cool	present	They not said here	it	day	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent it=Patient

Option 3

They let it fly short distances over rivers and up onto the tops of rocks

The tree, 15 words

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	2 let	nsubj
2	let	let	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 let	obj
4	fly	fly	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 let	xcomp
5	short	short	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 distances	amod
6	distances	distance	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 fly	obj
7	over	over	ADP	_	8 rivers	case
8	rivers	river	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 fly	obl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 tops	cc
10	up	up	ADV	_	13 tops	advmod
11	onto	onto	ADP	_	13 tops	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 tops	det
13	tops	top	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 rivers	conj
14	of	of	ADP	_	15 rocks	case
15	rocks	rock	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 tops	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	let	past	They	it					tree rules
2	fly	infinitive		short distances		rivers and the tops of rocks			vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent distance=Theme over river=Location

Option 4

They are used to dig the 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 used	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 used	aux:pass
3	used	use	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 dig	mark
5	dig	dig	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 used	advcl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 nest	det
7	nest	nest	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 dig	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	use	present · passive		They					vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
2	dig	to-infinitive		the nest					vn poke-19-1-1-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent nest=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/t11/