Test 4 · Pigeons: head bobbing, homing and city cliffs

What would happen if you took a homing pigeon 300 kilometres away and let it go?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, pigeon · What happens: happen, take, let, go · To what, where: homing pigeon, pigeon

This is test 4 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 happen	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	6 took	mark
5	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	6 took	nsubj
6	took	take	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 pigeon	det
8	homing	homing	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 pigeon	compound
9	pigeon	pigeon	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 took	obj
10	300	300	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	11 kilometres	nummod
11	kilometres	kilometre	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 away	obl:unmarked
12	away	away	ADV	_	6 took	advmod
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 let	cc
14	let	let	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 happen	conj
15	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 let	obj
16	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	14 let	xcomp
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	happen	would				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	take a condition, not said to happen	past	you	a homing pigeon	away property	vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pigeon=Theme
3	let	infinitive		pigeon		tree rules
4	go	infinitive	pigeon not said here			vn disappearance-48.2-1 «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 · ✓ the right answer

It would most likely fly back to its own loft

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	5 fly	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 fly	aux
3	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	4 likely	advmod
4	likely	likely	ADV	_	5 fly	advmod
5	fly	fly	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	back	back	ADV	_	5 fly	advmod
7	to	to	ADP	_	10 loft	case
8	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 loft	nmod:poss
9	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 loft	amod
10	loft	loft	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 fly	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fly back	would	It			its own loft		likely property	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme to loft=Destination

Option 2

It would stay where it was let go

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 stay	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 stay	aux
3	stay	stay	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	7 let	advmod
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 let	nsubj:pass
6	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 let	aux:pass
7	let	let	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 stay	advcl
8	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 let	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	stay	would	It		vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	let	past · passive		it	tree rules
3	go	infinitive			vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

It would follow the first car it saw

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 follow	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 follow	aux
3	follow	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 car	det
5	first	first	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	6 car	amod
6	car	car	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 follow	obj
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 saw	nsubj
8	saw	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 car	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	would	It	the first car					vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent car=Theme
2	see	past	car	the first car not said here					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer car=Stimulus

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

It would fly to the nearest big city

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 fly	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 fly	aux
3	fly	fly	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	8 city	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 city	det
6	nearest	near	ADJ	Degree=Sup	8 city	amod
7	big	big	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 city	amod
8	city	city	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 fly	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fly	would	It					to the nearest big city result	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme to city=Result

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/t4/