Test 11 · Horses, zebras and donkeys

Why do you think nobody rides zebras in a race, even though they look like horses?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, nobody, zebras · What happens: think, ride, look · To what, where: zebras, race · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 11 of lesson 25 «Horses, zebras and donkeys» 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	4 think	advmod
2	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 think	aux
3	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	4 think	nsubj
4	think	think	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	6 rides	nsubj
6	rides	ride	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 think	ccomp
7	zebras	zebra	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 rides	obj
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 race	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 race	det
10	race	race	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 rides	obl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 look	punct
12	even	even	ADV	_	15 look	advmod
13	though	though	SCONJ	_	15 look	mark
14	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 look	nsubj
15	look	look	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 think	parataxis
16	like	like	ADP	_	17 horses	case
17	horses	horse	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 look	obl
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 think	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	think speech: other	present · do-support	you				vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	ride	present	nobody	zebras	a race		vn nonvehicle-51.4.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent zebra=Theme
3	look	present	zebras = zebra			like horses	vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus

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 stripes make riders dizzy

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 stripes	det
2	stripes	stripe	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 make	nsubj
3	make	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	riders	rider	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 make	obj
5	dizzy	dizzy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 make	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present	the stripes	riders				dizzy property	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset rider=Product

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Zebras have never been tamed; they are too nervous and aggressive

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Zebras	zebra	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 tamed	nsubj:pass
2	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 tamed	aux
3	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	5 tamed	advmod
4	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	5 tamed	aux:pass
5	tamed	tame	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	;	;	PUNCT	_	10 nervous	punct
7	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 nervous	nsubj
8	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 nervous	cop
9	too	too	ADV	_	10 nervous	advmod
10	nervous	nervous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 tamed	advcl
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 aggressive	cc
12	aggressive	aggressive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 nervous	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	not tame	present · perfect · passive		Zebras		vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient
2	is	present	Zebras = zebra		nervous property	tree rules
3	be		Zebras = zebra not said here			tree rules

Option 3

Zebras are too slow to run

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Zebras	zebra	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 slow	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 slow	cop
3	too	too	ADV	_	4 slow	advmod
4	slow	slow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 run	mark
6	run	run	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 slow	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Zebras					slow property	tree rules
2	run	to-infinitive	Zebras not said here						vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

Zebras can't carry anything at all, as their backs are far too weak

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Zebras	zebra	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 carry	nsubj
2	ca	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 carry	aux
3	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 carry	advmod
4	carry	carry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	anything	anything	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	4 carry	obj
6	at	at	ADP	_	7 all	case
7	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	4 carry	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 weak	punct
9	as	as	SCONJ	_	15 weak	mark
10	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 backs	nmod:poss
11	backs	back	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 weak	nsubj
12	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 weak	cop
13	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	15 weak	advmod
14	too	too	ADV	_	15 weak	advmod
15	weak	weak	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 carry	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not carry	can	Zebras	anything		all			vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Theme
2	is	present	Zebras's backs					far, weak property	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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/25-horses-zebras-and-donkeys/t11/