Exam question 3 · Cat body language and cat myths: milk, nine lives and land…

Identify the statement which accurately characterises the righting reflex of the cat.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, statement · What happens: identify, characteris · To what, where: statement, righting reflex

This is exam question 3 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 statement	det
3	statement	statement	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 characterises	nsubj
5	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	6 characterises	advmod
6	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 statement	acl:relcl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 reflex	det
8	righting	righting	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 reflex	compound
9	reflex	reflex	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 characterises	obj
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 cat	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 cat	det
12	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 reflex	nmod
13	.	.	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 statement					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent statement=Theme
2	characteris	present	the statement	the righting reflex of the cat				accurately 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

The reflex is possessed only by black cats

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 reflex	det
2	reflex	reflex	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 possessed	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 possessed	aux:pass
4	possessed	possess	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	only	only	ADV	_	4 possessed	advmod
6	by	by	ADP	_	8 cats	case
7	black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 cats	amod
8	cats	cat	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 possessed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present · passive	black cats	the reflex					vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot subject=Theme

Option 2

The reflex is a consequence of the cat having nine lives

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 reflex	det
2	reflex	reflex	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 consequence	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 consequence	cop
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 consequence	det
5	consequence	consequence	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 cat	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 cat	det
8	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 consequence	nmod
9	having	have	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 consequence	acl
10	nine	nine	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	11 lives	nummod
11	lives	life	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 having	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the reflex	a consequence				of the cat	tree rules
2	have	gerund	a consequence not said here	nine lives					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Patient

Option 3

The reflex renders the cat entirely immune to all injury from falls of whatever height

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 reflex	det
2	reflex	reflex	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 renders	nsubj
3	renders	render	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 cat	det
5	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 renders	obj
6	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	7 immune	advmod
7	immune	immune	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 cat	amod
8	to	to	ADP	_	10 injury	case
9	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	10 injury	det
10	injury	injury	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 immune	obl
11	from	from	ADP	_	12 falls	case
12	falls	fall	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 renders	obl
13	of	of	ADP	_	14 whatever	case
14	whatever	whatever	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 falls	conj
15	height	height	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 whatever	nsubj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	render	present	the reflex	the cat		falls			vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent cat=Theme from fall=Initial_Location

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

The cat twists so as to land upon its feet, yet may nonetheless sustain serious injury

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cat	det
2	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 twists	nsubj
3	twists	twist	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	so	so	ADV	_	7 land	advmod
5	as	as	SCONJ	_	7 land	mark
6	to	to	PART	_	7 land	mark
7	land	land	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 twists	xcomp
8	upon	upon	ADP	_	10 feet	case
9	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 feet	nmod:poss
10	feet	foot	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 land	obl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 sustain	punct
12	yet	yet	CCONJ	_	15 sustain	cc
13	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	15 sustain	aux
14	nonetheless	nonetheless	ADV	_	15 sustain	advmod
15	sustain	sustain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 twists	conj
16	serious	serious	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 injury	amod
17	injury	injury	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 sustain	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	twist	present	the cat			tree rules
2	land	to-infinitive	the cat not said here		upon cat's feet	vn pocket-9.10-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	sustain	may	the cat not said here	serious injury	nonetheless property	vn sustain-55.6 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent injury=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.

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