Test 9 · Animal builders: termite mounds, weaver birds and other ne…

Why are the nests in bird's nest soup so expensive?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: nests · What happens: be · To what, where: nest soup

This is test 9 of lesson 243 «Animal builders: termite mounds, weaver birds and other nest makers» 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	11 expensive	advmod
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 expensive	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 nests	det
4	nests	nest	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 expensive	nsubj
5	in	in	ADP	_	9 soup	case
6	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 soup	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 bird	case
8	nest	nest	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 soup	compound
9	soup	soup	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 expensive	obl
10	so	so	ADV	_	11 expensive	advmod
11	expensive	expensive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	11 expensive	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the nests			bird's nest soup		expensive 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

They are grown in labs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 grown	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 grown	aux:pass
3	grown	grow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 labs	case
5	labs	lab	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 grown	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	present · passive		They		labs			vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 2

They are made of thin gold leaf, beaten flat by craftsmen in little workshops by the sea

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 made	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 made	aux:pass
3	made	make	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 leaf	case
5	thin	thin	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 leaf	amod
6	gold	gold	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 leaf	compound
7	leaf	leaf	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 made	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 beaten	punct
9	beaten	beat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 made	parataxis
10	flat	flat	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 beaten	xcomp
11	by	by	ADP	_	12 craftsmen	case
12	craftsmen	craftsman	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 beaten	obl
13	in	in	ADP	_	15 workshops	case
14	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 workshops	amod
15	workshops	workshop	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 beaten	obl
16	by	by	ADP	_	18 sea	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 sea	det
18	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 made	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present · passive	the sea	They				of thin gold leaf	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset subject=Product
2	beat	participle				little workshops		by craftsmen; flat property	vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by craftsman=Location

Option 3

They come only from penguins

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 come	nsubj
2	come	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	only	only	ADV	_	5 penguins	advmod
4	from	from	ADP	_	5 penguins	case
5	penguins	penguin	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 come	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	come	present	They					from penguins	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme from penguin=Initial_Location

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

They are made of swiftlet spit and must be collected carefully so the birds can still breed

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 made	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 made	aux:pass
3	made	make	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 spit	case
5	swiftlet	swiftlet	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 spit	compound
6	spit	spit	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 made	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 collected	cc
8	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 collected	aux
9	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	10 collected	aux:pass
10	collected	collect	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 made	conj
11	carefully	carefully	ADV	_	10 collected	advmod
12	so	so	SCONJ	_	17 breed	mark
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 birds	det
14	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	17 breed	nsubj
15	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	17 breed	aux
16	still	still	ADV	_	17 breed	advmod
17	breed	breed	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 collected	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	make	present · passive		They		of swiftlet spit	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product
2	collect	must · passive				carefully property	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»
3	breed	can	the birds		still		tree rules

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.

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