Exam question 4 · Animal minds: what dogs and cats feel and understand (and…

Ascertain the principal significance of a stiff, high and rapid wag of the tail in a dog.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain · To what, where: principal significance

This is exam question 4 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 significance	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 significance	amod
4	significance	significance	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	12 wag	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 wag	det
7	stiff	stiff	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 wag	amod
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 high	punct
9	high	high	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 stiff	conj
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 rapid	cc
11	rapid	rapid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 stiff	conj
12	wag	wag	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 significance	nmod
13	of	of	ADP	_	15 tail	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 tail	det
15	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 wag	nmod
16	in	in	ADP	_	18 dog	case
17	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 dog	det
18	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 tail	nmod
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the principal significance of a stiff wag of the tail in a dog					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent significance=Topic

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 right answer

It may indicate tension rather than friendliness

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 indicate	nsubj
2	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 indicate	aux
3	indicate	indicate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	tension	tension	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 indicate	obj
5	rather	rather	ADV	ExtPos=CCONJ	7 friendliness	cc
6	than	than	ADP	_	5 rather	fixed
7	friendliness	friendliness	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 indicate	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	indicate	may	It	tension					vn indicate-78-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot tension=Topic

Option 2

It invariably indicates delight

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 indicates	nsubj
2	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	3 indicates	advmod
3	indicates	indicate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	delight	delight	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 indicates	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	indicate	present	It	delight				invariably property	vn indicate-78-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot delight=Topic

Option 3

It indicates hunger alone

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	2 indicates	nsubj
2	indicates	indicate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	hunger	hunger	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 indicates	obj
4	alone	alone	ADV	_	2 indicates	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	indicate	present	It	hunger				alone property	vn indicate-78-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot hunger=Topic

Option 4

It indicates that the dog is asleep and dreaming

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	2 indicates	nsubj
2	indicates	indicate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	7 asleep	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 dog	det
5	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 asleep	nsubj
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 asleep	cop
7	asleep	asleep	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 indicates	advcl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 dreaming	cc
9	dreaming	dream	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 asleep	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	indicate	present	It		vn indicate-78-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Pivot
2	is	present	the dog	asleep property	tree rules
3	dream	gerund	the dog not said here		vn cognize-85 «NP V PP.topic»: 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/e4/