Test 1 · Pigeons: head bobbing, homing and city cliffs

«pigeon in the station keeps nodding its head like it's listening to music lol» What is really going on?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: pigeon · What happens: keep, nod, listen, go on · To what, where: head

This is test 1 of lesson 221 «Pigeons: head bobbing, homing and city cliffs» 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	_	6 keeps	punct
2	pigeon	pigeon	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 keeps	nsubj
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 station	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 station	det
5	station	station	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pigeon	nmod
6	keeps	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	nodding	nod	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 keeps	xcomp
8	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 head	nmod:poss
9	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 nodding	obj
10	like	like	SCONJ	_	13 listening	mark
11	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 listening	nsubj
12	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 listening	aux
13	listening	listen	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 nodding	advcl
14	to	to	ADP	_	15 music	case
15	music	music	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 listening	obl
16	lol	lol	INTJ	_	6 keeps	discourse
17	»	»	PUNCT	_	6 keeps	punct
18	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	21 going	nsubj
19	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	21 going	aux
20	really	really	ADV	_	21 going	advmod
21	going	go	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 keeps	xcomp
22	on	on	ADP	_	21 going	compound:prt
23	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 keeps	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	keep in a quote	present	pigeon in the station			tree rules
2	nod in a quote	gerund	pigeon in the station not said here	pigeon's head		vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent head=Patient
3	listen in a quote	present · progressive	pigeon		to music	vn peer-30.3 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to music=Theme
4	go on	present · progressive				vn function-105.2.1 «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

It is bobbing to keep its balance while it stands on one leg

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 bobbing	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 bobbing	aux
3	bobbing	bob	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 keep	mark
5	keep	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 bobbing	xcomp
6	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 balance	nmod:poss
7	balance	balance	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 keep	obj
8	while	while	SCONJ	_	10 stands	mark
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 stands	nsubj
10	stands	stand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 bobbing	advcl
11	on	on	ADP	_	13 leg	case
12	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	13 leg	nummod
13	leg	leg	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 stands	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	bob	present · progressive	It			tree rules
2	keep	to-infinitive		its balance		vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent balance=Theme
3	stand	present	balance		one leg	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on leg=Location
4	balance		its = it			nom balance «state intransitive»: poss=agent

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Its head holds still at each step so its view stays steady

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 head	nmod:poss
2	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 holds	nsubj
3	holds	hold	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	still	still	ADV	_	3 holds	advmod
5	at	at	ADP	_	7 step	case
6	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	7 step	det
7	step	step	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 holds	obl
8	so	so	SCONJ	_	11 stays	mark
9	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 view	nmod:poss
10	view	view	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 stays	nsubj
11	stays	stay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 holds	advcl
12	steady	steady	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 stays	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	when	other	roles by
1	hold	present	Its head	still	at each step	vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at step=Location
2	stay	present	head's view		steady property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	view		head			nom view «cognition transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

It really is nodding along to the music in the station

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	4 nodding	nsubj
2	really	really	ADV	_	4 nodding	advmod
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 nodding	aux
4	nodding	nod	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	along	along	ADV	_	4 nodding	advmod
6	to	to	ADP	_	8 music	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 music	det
8	music	music	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 nodding	obl
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 station	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 station	det
11	station	station	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 nodding	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	nod	present · progressive	It		the music	the station		along property	vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to music=Recipient

Option 4

It is trying to shake off fleas

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 trying	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 trying	aux
3	trying	try	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 shake	mark
5	shake	shake	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 trying	xcomp
6	off	off	ADP	_	5 shake	compound:prt
7	fleas	flea	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 shake	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	try	present · progressive	It						vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
2	shake off not said to happen	to-infinitive		fleas					vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V NP together»: agent=Agent flea=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/221-pigeons-head-bobbing-homing-and-city-cliffs/t1/