Exam question 2 · Cats as hunters: presents on the doormat and why Tom never…

Identify the principal reason for which a domestic cat deposits dead prey upon the doormat.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, domestic cat · What happens: identify, deposit · To what, where: principal reason, dead prey, doormat

This is exam question 2 of lesson 198 «Cats as hunters: presents on the doormat and why Tom never catches Jerry» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 deposits	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 cat	det
8	domestic	domestic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 cat	amod
9	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 deposits	nsubj
10	deposits	deposit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	parataxis
11	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 prey	amod
12	prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 deposits	obj
13	upon	upon	ADP	_	15 doormat	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 doormat	det
15	doormat	doormat	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 deposits	obl
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	deposit	present	a domestic cat	dead prey		the doormat		for the principal reason	vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent prey=Theme upon doormat=Destination

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 seeks to teach the owner to read

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	2 seeks	nsubj
2	seeks	seek	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 teach	mark
4	teach	teach	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 seeks	xcomp
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 owner	det
6	owner	owner	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 teach	obj
7	to	to	PART	_	8 read	mark
8	read	read	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 teach	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	seek	present	It		tree rules
2	teach speech: other not said to happen	to-infinitive		the owner	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent owner=Recipient clause=Topic
3	read	to-infinitive	the owner not said here		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

It expresses gratitude to its owner

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	2 expresses	nsubj
2	expresses	express	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	gratitude	gratitude	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 expresses	obj
4	to	to	ADP	_	6 owner	case
5	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 owner	nmod:poss
6	owner	owner	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 expresses	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	express	present	It	gratitude	gratitude's owner				vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent gratitude=Theme to owner=Recipient

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

It carries food to a place of safety by instinct

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	2 carries	nsubj
2	carries	carry	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 carries	obj
4	to	to	ADP	_	6 place	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 place	det
6	place	place	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 carries	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 safety	case
8	safety	safety	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 place	nmod
9	by	by	ADP	_	10 instinct	case
10	instinct	instinct	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 carries	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	carry	present	It	food		a place of safety		by instinct	vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent food=Theme to place=Destination

Option 4

It intends to punish the household

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	2 intends	nsubj
2	intends	intend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 punish	mark
4	punish	punish	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 intends	xcomp
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 household	det
6	household	household	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 punish	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	intend	present	It						vn intend-61.2-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	punish not said to happen	to-infinitive		the household					vn prosecute-33.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent household=Patient

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/198-cats-as-hunters-presents-on-the-doormat-and-why-tom-never-catches-jerry/e2/