Test 9 · Plants deeper: poisonous and stinging plants and staying s…

Why would a desert cactus need to guard itself?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: desert cactus · What happens: need, guard · To what, where: cactus

This is test 9 of lesson 255 «Plants deeper: poisonous and stinging plants and staying safe» 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	5 cactus	advmod
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 cactus	aux
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 cactus	det
4	desert	desert	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 cactus	compound
5	cactus	cactus	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 need	nsubj
6	need	need	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	to	to	PART	_	8 guard	mark
8	guard	guard	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 need	advcl
9	itself	itself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	8 guard	obj
10	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 need	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	need	present	a desert cactus						vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot
2	guard	to-infinitive	a desert cactus not said here	cactus					vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent itself=Beneficiary

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

Cacti are afraid of the dark and the spines keep them company

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Cacti	cactus	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 afraid	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 afraid	cop
3	afraid	afraid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 dark	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 dark	det
6	dark	dark	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 afraid	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 keep	cc
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 spines	det
9	spines	spine	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 keep	nsubj
10	keep	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 afraid	conj
11	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 keep	obj
12	company	company	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 keep	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Cacti					of the dark; afraid property	tree rules
2	keep	present	the spines	Cacti = cactus					vn sustain-55.6-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent they=Theme company=Attribute

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

Its stored water would tempt thirsty animals

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 water	nmod:poss
2	stored	store	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 water	amod
3	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 tempt	nsubj
4	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 tempt	aux
5	tempt	tempt	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	thirsty	thirsty	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 animals	amod
7	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 tempt	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	store	participle							vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	tempt	would	Its stored water		thirsty animals				vn urge-58.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent animal=Recipient

Option 3

Desert insects eat only spines

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Desert	desert	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 insects	compound
2	insects	insect	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 eat	nsubj
3	eat	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	only	only	ADV	_	5 spines	advmod
5	spines	spine	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 eat	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat	present	Desert insects	spines					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spine=Patient

Option 4

It needs spines to drink the rain

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 needs	nsubj
2	needs	need	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	spines	spine	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 needs	obj
4	to	to	PART	_	5 drink	mark
5	drink	drink	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 needs	xcomp
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 rain	det
7	rain	rain	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 drink	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	need	present	It	spines					tree rules
2	drink not said to happen	to-infinitive	spines not said here	the rain					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rain=Patient

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/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/t9/