Exam question 3 · Animal minds: what dogs and cats feel and understand (and…

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the response of a cat to its own name.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts, cat · What happens: select, establish, concern, name · To what, where: response

This is exam question 3 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	xcomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 facts	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 facts	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 facts	amod
8	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 facts	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 response	det
11	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 cat	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 cat	det
14	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 response	nmod
15	to	to	ADP	_	18 name	case
16	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	18 name	nmod:poss
17	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 name	amod
18	name	name	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obl
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response	consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the response of a cat	to cat's own name	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus response=Experiencer
4	name		cat			nom name «communication transitive»: poss=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 · ← Mova's choice

The cat is incapable of distinguishing its name

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cat	det
2	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 incapable	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 incapable	cop
4	incapable	incapable	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 name	case
6	distinguishing	distinguishing	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 name	amod
7	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 name	nmod:poss
8	name	name	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 incapable	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the cat	incapable				of cat's distinguishing name	tree rules
2	name		cat						nom name «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 2

The cat recognises only names consisting of a single syllable

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cat	det
2	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 recognises	nsubj
3	recognises	recognise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	only	only	ADV	_	5 names	advmod
5	names	name	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 recognises	obj
6	consisting	consist	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 names	acl
7	of	of	ADP	_	10 syllable	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 syllable	det
9	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 syllable	amod
10	syllable	syllable	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 consisting	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	recognise	present	the cat	names					vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer name=Stimulus
2	consist	gerund	names not said here					of a single syllable	tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The cat recognises its name but frequently elects not to respond

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cat	det
2	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 recognises	nsubj
3	recognises	recognise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 name	nmod:poss
5	name	name	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 recognises	obj
6	but	but	CCONJ	_	8 elects	cc
7	frequently	frequently	ADV	_	8 elects	advmod
8	elects	elect	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 recognises	conj
9	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	11 respond	advmod
10	to	to	PART	_	11 respond	mark
11	respond	respond	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 elects	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	recognise	present	the cat	cat's name		vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer name=Stimulus
2	elect	present	the cat not said here		frequently property	tree rules
3	not respond speech: other	to-infinitive	the cat not said here			vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	name		cat			nom name «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4

The cat responds invariably and immediately

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cat	det
2	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 responds	nsubj
3	responds	respond	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	3 responds	advmod
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 immediately	cc
6	immediately	immediately	ADV	_	4 invariably	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	respond speech: other	present	the cat					invariably property	vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/e3/