Test 10 · Defences: tricks and myths: playing dead, dropping tails,…

What would happen if a hungry bird pecked the eyespot near the tip of a butterfly's wing?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: hungry bird · What happens: happen, peck · To what, where: eyespot, tip

This is test 10 of lesson 249 «Defences: tricks and myths: playing dead, dropping tails, ink, and do ostriches bury their heads?» 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 happen	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	8 pecked	mark
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 bird	det
6	hungry	hungry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 bird	amod
7	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 pecked	nsubj
8	pecked	peck	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 eyespot	det
10	eyespot	eyespot	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 pecked	obj
11	near	near	ADP	_	13 tip	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 tip	det
13	tip	tip	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 pecked	obl
14	of	of	ADP	_	18 wing	case
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 butterfly	det
16	butterfly	butterfly	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 wing	nmod:poss
17	's	's	PART	_	16 butterfly	case
18	wing	wing	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 tip	nmod
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	peck a condition, not said to happen	past	a hungry bird	the eyespot		the tip of a butterfly's wing			vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent eyespot=Patient near tip=Location

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 · ✓ the right answer

The wing would tear, but the butterfly could escape alive

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 wing	det
2	wing	wing	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 tear	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 tear	aux
4	tear	tear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 escape	punct
6	but	but	CCONJ	_	10 escape	cc
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 butterfly	det
8	butterfly	butterfly	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 escape	nsubj
9	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 escape	aux
10	escape	escape	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 tear	conj
11	alive	alive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 escape	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tear	would	the wing						vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	escape	could	the butterfly					alive property	vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

The bird would be blinded

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 bird	det
2	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 blinded	nsubj:pass
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 blinded	aux
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 blinded	aux:pass
5	blinded	blind	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	blind	would · passive		the bird					tree rules

Option 3

The eyespot would bite back

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 eyespot	det
2	eyespot	eyespot	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 bite	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 bite	aux
4	bite	bite	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	back	back	ADV	_	4 bite	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	bite back	would	the eyespot						vn swat-18.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent

Option 4

The butterfly would die at once

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 butterfly	det
2	butterfly	butterfly	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 die	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 die	aux
4	die	die	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 once	case
6	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	4 die	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	die	would	the butterfly						vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

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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