Test 6 · ★★ · Evolution: why giraffes really have long necks

In a cartoon, a giraffe ties its long neck in a knot and then untangles it. Why can't a real giraffe?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: giraffe · What happens: tie, untangle · To what, where: long neck, cartoon, neck

This is test 6 · ★★ of lesson 278 «Evolution: why giraffes really have long necks» 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

Sentence 1: In a cartoon, a giraffe ties its long neck in a knot and then untangles it.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	In	in	ADP	_	3 cartoon	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 cartoon	det
3	cartoon	cartoon	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 ties	obl
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 cartoon	punct
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 giraffe	det
6	giraffe	giraffe	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 ties	nsubj
7	ties	tie	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 neck	nmod:poss
9	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 neck	amod
10	neck	neck	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 ties	obj
11	in	in	ADP	_	13 knot	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 knot	det
13	knot	knot	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 ties	obl
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 untangles	cc
15	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	16 untangles	advmod
16	untangles	untangle	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 ties	conj
17	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 untangles	obj
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	7 ties	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tie	present	a giraffe	giraffe's long neck		a cartoon		in a knot	vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent neck=Patient
2	untangle	present	a giraffe not said here	neck			then		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.

Sentence 2: Why can't a real giraffe?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Rel	root	root
2	ca	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 giraffe	aux
3	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	6 giraffe	advmod
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 giraffe	det
5	real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 giraffe	amod
6	giraffe	giraffe	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Why	nsubj
7	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 Why	punct

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

Real giraffes have no bones in their necks, but their skin is far too thick

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 giraffes	amod
2	giraffes	giraffe	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 have	nsubj
3	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	5 bones	det
5	bones	bone	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 have	obj
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 necks	case
7	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 necks	nmod:poss
8	necks	neck	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 have	obl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 thick	punct
10	but	but	CCONJ	_	16 thick	cc
11	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 skin	nmod:poss
12	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 thick	nsubj
13	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 thick	cop
14	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	16 thick	advmod
15	too	too	ADV	_	16 thick	advmod
16	thick	thick	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 have	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	Real giraffes	no bones		giraffes's necks			vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bone=Patient
2	is	present	giraffes's skin					far, thick property	tree rules

Option 2

Real giraffes can tie two knots, not one

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 giraffes	amod
2	giraffes	giraffe	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 tie	nsubj
3	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 tie	aux
4	tie	tie	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 knots	nummod
6	knots	knot	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 tie	obj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 one	punct
8	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	9 one	advmod
9	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	4 tie	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tie	can	Real giraffes	two knots				one obl	vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent knot=Patient

Option 3

Its neck is made of rubber

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	2 neck	nmod:poss
2	neck	neck	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 made	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 made	aux:pass
4	made	make	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 rubber	case
6	rubber	rubber	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 made	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present · passive		Its neck				of rubber	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Its neck has only 7 long bones and bends like ours, not like rope

The tree, 14 words

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	2 neck	nmod:poss
2	neck	neck	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 has	nsubj
3	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	only	only	ADV	_	5 7	advmod
5	7	7	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	7 bones	nummod
6	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 bones	amod
7	bones	bone	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 has	obj
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 bends	cc
9	bends	bend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 has	conj
10	like	like	ADP	_	11 ours	case
11	ours	our	PRON	Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 bends	obl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 rope	punct
13	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	15 rope	advmod
14	like	like	ADP	_	15 rope	case
15	rope	rope	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 bends	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	Its neck	7 long bones					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bone=Patient
2	bend	present	Its neck not said here					like ours; like rope	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/278-evolution-why-giraffes-really-have-long-necks/t6/