Test 11 · ★ · Foxes and squirrels

«squirrel nicked all the bird food AGAIN, bloody thing» Why is this so hard to stop?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: squirrel, this · What happens: nick, be, stop · To what, where: bird food

This is test 11 · ★ of lesson 215 «Foxes and squirrels» 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	«	«	PUNCT	_	3 nicked	punct
2	squirrel	squirrel	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 nicked	nsubj
3	nicked	nick	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 food	det:predet
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 food	det
6	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 food	compound
7	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 nicked	obj
8	AGAIN	again	ADV	_	3 nicked	advmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 thing	punct
10	bloody	bloody	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 thing	amod
11	thing	thing	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 nicked	parataxis
12	»	»	PUNCT	_	11 thing	punct
13	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	17 hard	advmod
14	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	17 hard	cop
15	this	this	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	17 hard	nsubj
16	so	so	ADV	_	17 hard	advmod
17	hard	hard	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 nicked	advcl
18	to	to	PART	_	19 stop	mark
19	stop	stop	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	17 hard	xcomp
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 nicked	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	nick in a quote	participle	squirrel	all bird food	again		vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent food=Patient
2	is	present	this			hard property	tree rules
3	stop	to-infinitive	this not said here				vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality

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 birds give the food away

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 birds	det
2	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 give	nsubj
3	give	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 food	det
5	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 give	obj
6	away	away	ADV	_	3 give	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	give away	present	the birds	the food				away property	vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent food=Theme

Option 2

Squirrels can fly like birds when they spread their legs out wide

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Squirrels	squirrel	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 fly	nsubj
2	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 fly	aux
3	fly	fly	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	like	like	ADP	_	5 birds	case
5	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 fly	obl
6	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	8 spread	advmod
7	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 spread	nsubj
8	spread	spread	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 fly	advcl
9	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 legs	nmod:poss
10	legs	leg	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 spread	obj
11	out	out	ADV	_	8 spread	advmod
12	wide	wide	ADV	_	8 spread	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fly	can	Squirrels					like birds	vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	spread out	present	Squirrels = squirrel	Squirrels's legs				out, wide property	vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location leg=Theme

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

Squirrels are skilled acrobats and solve puzzles

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Squirrels	squirrel	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 acrobats	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 acrobats	cop
3	skilled	skilled	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 acrobats	amod
4	acrobats	acrobat	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 solve	cc
6	solve	solve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 acrobats	conj
7	puzzles	puzzle	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 solve	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	Squirrels	skilled acrobats					tree rules
2	solve	present	Squirrels not said here	puzzles					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent puzzle=Topic

Option 4

Squirrels are invisible at night

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Squirrels	squirrel	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 invisible	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 invisible	cop
3	invisible	invisible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	at	at	ADP	_	5 night	case
5	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 invisible	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Squirrels				night	invisible property	tree rules

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/215-foxes-and-squirrels/t11/