Exam question 1 · Cat body language and cat myths: milk, nine lives and land…

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises a domestic cat which approaches with its tail held vertically?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: domestic cat · What happens: follow, characteris, approach, hold · To what, where: domestic cat, tail

This is exam question 1 of lesson 199 «Cat body language and cat myths: milk, nine lives and landing on their feet» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 cat	det
10	domestic	domestic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 cat	amod
11	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
12	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	13 approaches	nsubj
13	approaches	approach	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 cat	acl:relcl
14	with	with	ADP	_	16 tail	case
15	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 tail	nmod:poss
16	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 approaches	obl
17	held	hold	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	16 tail	acl
18	vertically	vertically	ADV	_	17 held	advmod
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		a domestic cat	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	approach	present	a domestic cat		with cat's tail	vn confront-98 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with tail=Instrument
4	hold	participle		cat's tail not said here	vertically property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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 · ✓ the right answer

The animal is offering a friendly greeting

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 animal	det
2	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 offering	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 offering	aux
4	offering	offer	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 greeting	det
6	friendly	friendly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 greeting	amod
7	greeting	greeting	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 offering	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	offer	present · progressive	the animal	a friendly greeting					vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent greeting=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

The animal is preparing to attack

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 animal	det
2	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 preparing	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 preparing	aux
4	preparing	prepare	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 attack	mark
6	attack	attack	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 preparing	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prepare	present · progressive	the animal						vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Agent clause=Attribute
2	attack not said to happen	to-infinitive	the animal not said here						vn attack-60.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

The animal is unwell

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 animal	det
2	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 unwell	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 unwell	cop
4	unwell	unwell	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the animal					unwell property	tree rules

Option 4

The animal is in a state of fear and seeks a means of escape

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 animal	det
2	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 state	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 state	cop
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 state	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 state	det
6	state	state	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 fear	case
8	fear	fear	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 state	nmod
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 seeks	cc
10	seeks	seek	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 state	conj
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 means	nsubj
12	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 seeks	ccomp
13	of	of	ADP	_	14 escape	case
14	escape	escape	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 means	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	other	roles by
1	is	present	the animal	a state	of fear	tree rules
2	seek	present	the animal not said here			tree rules
3	mean	present	a		of escape	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: 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/199-cat-body-language-and-cat-myths-milk-nine-lives-and-landing-on-their-feet/e1/