Exam question 2 · Animal minds: what dogs and cats feel and understand (and…

Identify the manner in which a domestic cat ordinarily captures a mouse.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, domestic cat · What happens: identify, capture · To what, where: manner, mouse

This is exam question 2 of lesson 237 «Animal minds: what dogs and cats feel and understand (and do cats really chase mice?)» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 manner	det
3	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 captures	obl
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 cat	det
7	domestic	domestic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 cat	amod
8	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 captures	nsubj
9	ordinarily	ordinarily	ADV	_	10 captures	advmod
10	captures	capture	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Identify	parataxis
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 mouse	det
12	mouse	mouse	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 captures	obj
13	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the manner					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent manner=Theme
2	capture	present	a domestic cat	a mouse				ordinarily property	vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mouse=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 · ← Mova's choice

By the setting of baited traps

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	3 setting	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 setting	det
3	setting	setting	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 traps	case
5	baited	bait	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 traps	amod
6	traps	trap	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 setting	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	bait	participle							vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent

Option 2

By prolonged pursuit throughout the dwelling

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	3 pursuit	case
2	prolonged	prolong	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 pursuit	amod
3	pursuit	pursuit	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	throughout	throughout	ADP	_	6 dwelling	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 dwelling	det
6	dwelling	dwelling	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 pursuit	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prolong	participle							vn sustain-55.6 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

By waiting motionless and subsequently pouncing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 waiting	mark
2	waiting	wait	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	motionless	motionless	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 waiting	xcomp
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 pouncing	cc
5	subsequently	subsequently	ADV	_	6 pouncing	advmod
6	pouncing	pounce	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 waiting	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wait	gerund						motionless property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	pounce	gerund						subsequently property	vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

By excavating the burrow with implements

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 excavating	mark
2	excavating	excavate	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 burrow	det
4	burrow	burrow	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 excavating	obj
5	with	with	ADP	_	6 implements	case
6	implements	implement	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 excavating	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	excavate	gerund		the burrow				with implements	vn search-35.2 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent burrow=Location

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/237-animal-minds-what-dogs-and-cats-feel-and-understand-and-do-cats-really-chase-mice/e2/