Exam question 1 · Garden birds: robins, blackbirds, tits and feeders

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the tendency of the robin to attend a gardener at work?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: robin · What happens: follow, characteris, attend, tend · To what, where: tendency, gardener, work

This is exam question 1 of lesson 216 «Garden birds: robins, blackbirds, tits and feeders» 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	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 tendency	det
10	tendency	tendency	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 robin	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 robin	det
13	robin	robin	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 tendency	nmod
14	to	to	PART	_	15 attend	mark
15	attend	attend	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 characterises	advcl
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 gardener	det
17	gardener	gardener	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 attend	obj
18	at	at	ADP	_	19 work	case
19	work	work	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 attend	obl
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund						vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the tendency of the robin			of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	attend	to-infinitive			a gardener	work		vn attend-107.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme gardener=Goal
4	tend		the robin					nom tendency «cognition intransitive»: of=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 · ✓ the right answer

Digging exposes worms and insects, as the rooting of wild boar did formerly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Digging	dig	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	13 did	csubj
2	exposes	expose	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 worms	compound
3	worms	worm	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Digging	obj
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 insects	cc
5	insects	insect	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 worms	conj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 rooting	punct
7	as	as	ADP	_	9 rooting	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 rooting	det
9	rooting	rooting	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Digging	obl
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 boar	case
11	wild	wild	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 boar	amod
12	boar	boar	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 rooting	nmod
13	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
14	formerly	formerly	ADV	_	13 did	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	dig	gerund		exposes worms and insects	as the rooting of wild boar	vn create-26.4-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Agent worm=Result as rooting=Attribute
2	do	past	Digging		formerly property	vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	root			wild boar		nom rooting «process transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

The robin wishes to defend the gardener from cats and other enemies of the garden

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 robin	det
2	robin	robin	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 wishes	nsubj
3	wishes	wish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 defend	mark
5	defend	defend	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 wishes	xcomp
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 gardener	det
7	gardener	gardener	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 defend	obj
8	from	from	ADP	_	9 cats	case
9	cats	cat	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 defend	obl
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 enemies	cc
11	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 enemies	amod
12	enemies	enemy	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 cats	conj
13	of	of	ADP	_	15 garden	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 garden	det
15	garden	garden	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 enemies	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wish	present	the robin						vn wish-62 «NP V for NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
2	defend not said to happen	to-infinitive	the robin not said here		the gardener			from cats and other enemies of the garden	vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent gardener=Beneficiary from cat=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

The robin regards the gardener as its parent and follows accordingly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 robin	det
2	robin	robin	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 regards	nsubj
3	regards	regard	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 gardener	det
5	gardener	gardener	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 regards	obj
6	as	as	ADP	_	8 parent	case
7	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 parent	nmod:poss
8	parent	parent	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 regards	obl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 follows	cc
10	follows	follow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 regards	conj
11	accordingly	accordingly	ADV	_	10 follows	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	regard	present	the robin	the gardener				as robin's parent	vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP PP.value»: agent=Agent gardener=Theme as parent=Value
2	follow	present	the robin not said here					accordingly property	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

The robin is attracted solely by the sound of the spade

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 robin	det
2	robin	robin	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 attracted	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 attracted	aux:pass
4	attracted	attract	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	solely	solely	ADV	_	4 attracted	advmod
6	by	by	ADP	_	8 sound	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 sound	det
8	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 attracted	obl
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 spade	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 spade	det
11	spade	spade	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 sound	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	attract	present · passive	the sound of the spade	the robin				solely property	vn lure-59.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=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.

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