Test 11 · ★ · Dolphins, porpoises and seals

Why do seals need a thick layer of blubber?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: seals · What happens: need · To what, where: thick layer

This is test 11 · ★ of lesson 27 «Dolphins, porpoises and seals» 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 need	advmod
2	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 need	aux
3	seals	seal	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 need	nsubj
4	need	need	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 layer	det
6	thick	thick	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 layer	amod
7	layer	layer	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 need	obj
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 blubber	case
9	blubber	blubber	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 layer	nmod
10	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 need	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	need	present · do-support	seals	a thick layer of blubber					vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot layer=Theme

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

It makes them heavy enough to sink

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 makes	nsubj
2	makes	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 makes	obj
4	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 makes	xcomp
5	enough	enough	ADV	_	4 heavy	advmod
6	to	to	PART	_	7 sink	mark
7	sink	sink	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 heavy	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present	It	them = they				heavy property	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.material V NP»: agent=Material they=Product
2	sink	to-infinitive							vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 2

It helps them walk about on land

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 helps	nsubj
2	helps	help	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 helps	obj
4	walk	walk	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 helps	xcomp
5	about	about	ADV	_	4 walk	advmod
6	on	on	ADP	_	7 land	case
7	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 walk	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	help	present	It	them = they					vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent they=Beneficiary clause=Theme
2	walk	infinitive	them = they not said here			land		about property	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on land=Trajectory

Option 3

It stores spare whiskers for later

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 stores	nsubj
2	stores	store	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	spare	spare	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 whiskers	amod
4	whiskers	whisker	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 stores	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 later	case
6	later	late	ADV	Degree=Cmp	2 stores	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	store	present	It	spare whiskers					vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent whisker=Theme

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

It keeps them warm in icy water

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 keeps	nsubj
2	keeps	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 keeps	obj
4	warm	warm	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 keeps	xcomp
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 water	case
6	icy	icy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 water	amod
7	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 keeps	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	present	It	them = they		icy water		warm property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent they=Theme in water=Location

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/27-dolphins-porpoises-and-seals/t11/