Test 8 · Myth check: do ostriches bury their heads in the sand?

«stand on an ostrich egg? it'll smash, obviously» What is right?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, egg · What happens: stand, smash, be · To what, where: ostrich egg · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 8 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	_	2 stand	punct
2	stand	stand	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	on	on	ADP	_	6 egg	case
4	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 egg	det
5	ostrich	ostrich	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 egg	compound
6	egg	egg	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 stand	obl
7	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 stand	punct
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 smash	nsubj
9	'll	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 smash	aux
10	smash	smash	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 stand	advcl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 stand	punct
12	obviously	obviously	ADV	_	2 stand	advmod
13	»	»	PUNCT	_	2 stand	punct
14	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	16 right	nsubj
15	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 right	cop
16	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 stand	parataxis
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 stand	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	other	roles by
1	stand in a quote	imperative	you not said here	a ostrich egg	obviously property	vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
2	smash in a quote	future	egg			vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient
3	is	present			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

It only holds if it is cooked

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 holds	nsubj
2	only	only	ADV	_	3 holds	advmod
3	holds	hold	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	7 cooked	mark
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 cooked	nsubj:pass
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 cooked	aux:pass
7	cooked	cook	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 holds	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hold	present	It						vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	cook a condition, not said to happen	present · passive		it					vn cooking-45.3 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient

Option 2

Yes, it's as thin as a hen's egg

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	6 thin	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Yes	punct
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 thin	nsubj
4	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 thin	cop
5	as	as	ADV	_	6 thin	advmod
6	thin	thin	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
7	as	as	ADP	_	11 egg	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 hen	det
9	hen	hen	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 egg	nmod:poss
10	's	's	PART	_	9 hen	case
11	egg	egg	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 thin	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	it					as a hen's egg; thin property	tree rules

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Its shell is so strong a grown-up can stand on it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 shell	nmod:poss
2	shell	shell	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 strong	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 strong	cop
4	so	so	ADV	_	5 strong	advmod
5	strong	strong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 up	det
7	grown	grow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 up	amod
8	-	-	PUNCT	_	9 up	punct
9	up	up	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 stand	nsubj
10	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 stand	aux
11	stand	stand	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 strong	ccomp
12	on	on	ADP	_	13 it	case
13	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 stand	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	other	roles by
1	is	present	Its shell		strong property	tree rules
2	grow	participle				vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	stand	can	a grown up	shell		vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on it=Location

Option 4

Yes, they are so thin that they break if you even look at them

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	6 thin	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Yes	punct
3	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 thin	nsubj
4	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 thin	cop
5	so	so	ADV	_	6 thin	advmod
6	thin	thin	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
7	that	that	SCONJ	_	9 break	mark
8	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 break	nsubj
9	break	break	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 thin	advcl
10	if	if	SCONJ	_	13 look	mark
11	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	13 look	nsubj
12	even	even	ADV	_	13 look	advmod
13	look	look	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 break	advcl
14	at	at	ADP	_	15 them	case
15	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 look	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	present	they	thin property	tree rules
2	break	present	they		vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient
3	look a condition, not said to happen	present	you	at them = they	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent at they=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/t8/