Test 11 · ★★ · Dogs: from wolves to hundreds of breeds

Why did people breed retrievers with soft mouths and a love of water, rather than breeding them for speed?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: people · What happens: breed, love · To what, where: retrievers, water

This is test 11 · ★★ of lesson 192 «Dogs: from wolves to hundreds of breeds» 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	4 breed	advmod
2	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 breed	aux
3	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 breed	nsubj
4	breed	breed	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	retrievers	retriever	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 breed	obj
6	with	with	ADP	_	8 mouths	case
7	soft	soft	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 mouths	amod
8	mouths	mouth	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 breed	obl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 love	cc
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 love	det
11	love	love	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 mouths	conj
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 water	case
13	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 love	nmod
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 breeding	punct
15	rather	rather	ADV	ExtPos=CCONJ	17 breeding	cc
16	than	than	ADP	_	15 rather	fixed
17	breeding	breed	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 breed	advcl
18	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	17 breeding	obj
19	for	for	ADP	_	20 speed	case
20	speed	speed	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 breeding	obl
21	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 breed	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	breed	past · do-support	people	retrievers	with soft mouths and a love of water	tree rules
2	breed	gerund	people not said here	retrievers = retriever	for speed	tree rules
3	love			water		nom love «feeling transitive»: of=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

Speed was against the law for hunting dogs in those days, so breeders had to choose something else

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Speed	speed	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 law	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 law	cop
3	against	against	ADP	_	5 law	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 law	det
5	law	law	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	for	for	ADP	_	8 dogs	case
7	hunting	hunting	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 dogs	compound
8	dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 law	nmod
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 days	case
10	those	that	DET	Number=Plur PronType=Dem	11 days	det
11	days	day	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 dogs	nmod
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 had	punct
13	so	so	ADV	_	15 had	advmod
14	breeders	breeder	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 had	nsubj
15	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 law	conj
16	to	to	PART	_	17 choose	mark
17	choose	choose	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	15 had	xcomp
18	something	something	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	17 choose	obj
19	else	else	ADV	_	18 something	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	past	Speed		against the law; for hunting dogs in that days	tree rules
2	have	past	breeders			tree rules
3	choose	to-infinitive	breeders not said here	something		vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent something=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Their job was to bring shot birds back from water without damaging them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 job	nmod:poss
2	job	job	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 bring	nsubj
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 bring	cop
4	to	to	PART	_	5 bring	mark
5	bring	bring	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	shot	shot	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 birds	compound
7	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 bring	obj
8	back	back	ADV	_	5 bring	advmod
9	from	from	ADP	_	10 water	case
10	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 bring	obl
11	without	without	SCONJ	_	12 damaging	mark
12	damaging	damage	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 bring	advcl
13	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 damaging	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	is	past	Their job		water	bring property	tree rules
2	damage	gerund	Their job not said here	birds = bird			vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient
3	job		Their = they				nom job «act intransitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

Water dogs needed no food, which saved their owners money

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 dogs	compound
2	dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 needed	nsubj
3	needed	need	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	5 food	det
5	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 needed	obj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 saved	punct
7	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 saved	nsubj
8	saved	save	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 food	acl:relcl
9	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 owners	nmod:poss
10	owners	owner	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 money	compound
11	money	money	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 saved	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	need	past	Water dogs	no food					vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot food=Theme
2	save	past	no food	owners money					vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent money=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

Soft mouths made them bark less

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Soft	soft	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 mouths	amod
2	mouths	mouth	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 made	nsubj
3	made	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 made	obj
5	bark	bark	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 made	xcomp
6	less	less	ADV	Degree=Cmp	5 bark	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	past	Soft mouths	them = they					tree rules
2	bark	infinitive	them = they not said here					less property	vn animal_sounds-38 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/192-dogs-from-wolves-to-hundreds-of-breeds/t11/