Test 6 · ★ · Rats and mice in the city, and the elephant and mouse myth

«my grandad says rats alone gave everyone the Black Death» Is he completely right?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: grandad, rats · What happens: say, give, be · To what, where: Black Death, everyone · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 6 · ★ of lesson 222 «Rats and mice in the city, and the elephant and mouse myth» 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	_	4 says	punct
2	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 grandad	nmod:poss
3	grandad	grandad	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 says	nsubj
4	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 right	advcl
5	rats	rat	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 gave	nsubj
6	alone	alone	ADV	_	7 gave	advmod
7	gave	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 says	ccomp
8	everyone	everyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Tot	7 gave	obj
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 Death	det
10	Black	Black	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 Death	flat
11	Death	Death	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 gave	obj
12	»	»	PUNCT	_	4 says	punct
13	Is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 right	cop
14	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 right	nsubj
15	completely	completely	ADV	_	16 right	advmod
16	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	16 right	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert in a quote	present	my grandad				vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	give in a quote	past	rats	the Black Death	everyone	alone property	vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent everyone=Recipient death=Theme
3	is	present	grandad			completely, right property	tree rules

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 · ← Mova's choice

Yes, rats bit every person who caught it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	4 bit	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Yes	punct
3	rats	rat	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 bit	nsubj
4	bit	bite	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	6 person	det
6	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 bit	obj
7	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 caught	nsubj
8	caught	catch	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 person	acl:relcl
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 caught	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	bite	past	rats	every person					vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent person=Patient
2	catch	past	every person	person					vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Not quite; rat fleas helped, but human fleas and lice probably spread it too

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	6 helped	advmod
2	quite	quite	ADV	_	6 helped	advmod
3	;	;	PUNCT	_	6 helped	punct
4	rat	rat	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 fleas	compound
5	fleas	flea	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 helped	nsubj
6	helped	help	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 spread	punct
8	but	but	CCONJ	_	14 spread	cc
9	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 fleas	amod
10	fleas	flea	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 spread	nsubj
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 lice	cc
12	lice	louse	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 fleas	conj
13	probably	probably	ADV	_	14 spread	advmod
14	spread	spread	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 helped	conj
15	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 spread	obj
16	too	too	ADV	_	14 spread	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not help	past	rat fleas						vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent
2	spread	past	human fleas and lice	it				probably property	vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location it=Theme

Option 3

No, cats spread it, not rats

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	INTJ	Polarity=Neg	4 spread	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 spread	punct
3	cats	cat	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 spread	nsubj
4	spread	spread	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 spread	obj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 rats	punct
7	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	8 rats	advmod
8	rats	rat	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 spread	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	spread	present	cats	it				rats obl	vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location it=Theme

Option 4

No, the Black Death was caused by bad weather and dirty air, not by any animal

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	INTJ	Polarity=Neg	7 caused	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 No	punct
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 Death	det
4	Black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 Death	amod
5	Death	Death	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 caused	nsubj
6	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 caused	aux:pass
7	caused	cause	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
8	by	by	ADP	_	10 weather	case
9	bad	bad	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 weather	amod
10	weather	weather	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 caused	obl
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 air	cc
12	dirty	dirty	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 air	amod
13	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 weather	conj
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 animal	punct
15	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	18 animal	advmod
16	by	by	ADP	_	18 animal	case
17	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	18 animal	det
18	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 weather	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cause	past · passive	bad weather and dirty air and any animal	the Black Death					vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition 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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/222-rats-and-mice-in-the-city-and-the-elephant-and-mouse-myth/t6/