Test 12 · Elephants: the trunk and everything it does

Why does an elephant spend 16 to 18 hours a day eating?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: elephant, 16 hours · What happens: spend, eat

This is test 12 of lesson 21 «Elephants: the trunk and everything it does» 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	5 spend	advmod
2	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 spend	aux
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 elephant	det
4	elephant	elephant	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 spend	nsubj
5	spend	spend	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	16	16	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	9 hours	nummod
7	to	to	ADP	_	8 18	case
8	18	18	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	6 16	nmod
9	hours	hour	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 spend	obj
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 day	det
11	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 eating	obl:unmarked
12	eating	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	9 hours	acl
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 spend	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	spend	present · do-support	a elephant				hour		vn consume-66-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	eat	gerund	16 hours not said here				day		vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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 is bored and has nothing else to do

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 bored	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 bored	cop
3	bored	bored	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 has	cc
5	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 bored	conj
6	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	5 has	obj
7	else	else	ADV	_	6 nothing	advmod
8	to	to	PART	_	9 do	mark
9	do	do	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 nothing	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	present	It		bored property	tree rules
2	have	present		nothing		vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Patient
3	do	to-infinitive		nothing not said here		vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

It eats only one tiny leaf at a time, picked up with its tusks

The tree, 14 words

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 eats	nsubj
2	eats	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	only	only	ADV	_	4 one	advmod
4	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 leaf	nummod
5	tiny	tiny	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 leaf	amod
6	leaf	leaf	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 eats	obj
7	at	at	ADP	_	9 time	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 time	det
9	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 eats	obl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 picked	punct
11	picked	pick	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 time	acl
12	up	up	ADP	_	11 picked	compound:prt
13	with	with	ADP	_	15 tusks	case
14	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 tusks	nmod:poss
15	tusks	tusk	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 picked	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat	present	It	one tiny leaf			time		vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leaf=Patient
2	pick up	participle		a time not said here				with leaf's tusks	vn discover-84-1 «NP V PP.topic S_ING»: agent=Agent

Option 3

It stores the food in its trunk for winter

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 stores	nsubj
2	stores	store	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 food	det
4	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 stores	obj
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 trunk	case
6	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 trunk	nmod:poss
7	trunk	trunk	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 stores	obl
8	for	for	ADP	_	9 winter	case
9	winter	winter	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 stores	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	store	present	It	the food		food's trunk	winter		vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent food=Theme in trunk=Location

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It needs a huge amount of plant food, and plants are not very nourishing

The tree, 14 words

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 needs	nsubj
2	needs	need	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 amount	det
4	huge	huge	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 amount	amod
5	amount	amount	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 needs	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 food	case
7	plant	plant	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 food	compound
8	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 amount	nmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 nourishing	punct
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 nourishing	cc
11	plants	plant	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 nourishing	nsubj
12	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 nourishing	cop
13	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	15 nourishing	advmod
14	very	very	ADV	_	15 nourishing	advmod
15	nourishing	nourishing	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 needs	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	need	present	It	a huge amount of plant food		vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot amount=Theme
2	not is	present	plants		nourishing property	tree rules
3	amount			plant food		nom amount «possession transitive»: of=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/21-elephants-the-trunk/t12/