Test 1 · Extinct forever: the dodo, the passenger pigeon, the thyla…

In a cartoon, the dodo is a dim, clumsy bird that trips over its own feet. What is the real story?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: dodo, dim clumsy bird, real story · What happens: be, trip · To what, where: dim clumsy bird, cartoon, own feet

This is test 1 of lesson 281 «Extinct forever: the dodo, the passenger pigeon, the thylacine and more» 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, the dodo is a dim, clumsy bird that trips over its own feet.

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	12 bird	obl
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 cartoon	punct
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 dodo	det
6	dodo	dodo	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 bird	nsubj
7	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 bird	cop
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 bird	det
9	dim	dim	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 bird	amod
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 dim	punct
11	clumsy	clumsy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 bird	amod
12	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
13	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	14 trips	nsubj
14	trips	trip	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 bird	acl:relcl
15	over	over	ADP	_	18 feet	case
16	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	18 feet	nmod:poss
17	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 feet	amod
18	feet	foot	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 trips	obl
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	12 bird	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the dodo	a dim clumsy bird		a cartoon			tree rules
2	trip	present	a dim clumsy bird			dodo's own feet			vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over foot=Trajectory

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: What is the real story?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 What	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 story	det
4	real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 story	amod
5	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 What	nsubj
6	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 What	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the real story						tree rules

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

It is still living on Mauritius

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	4 living	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 living	aux
3	still	still	ADV	_	4 living	advmod
4	living	live	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	on	on	ADP	_	6 Mauritius	case
6	Mauritius	Mauritius	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 living	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	live	present · progressive	It			Mauritius	still		vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on mauritius=Location

Option 2

It really was too stupid to live, so it walked up to hunters and could not learn to run away

The tree, 20 words

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	5 stupid	nsubj
2	really	really	ADV	_	5 stupid	advmod
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 stupid	cop
4	too	too	ADV	_	5 stupid	advmod
5	stupid	stupid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 live	mark
7	live	live	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 stupid	xcomp
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 walked	punct
9	so	so	ADV	_	11 walked	advmod
10	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 walked	nsubj
11	walked	walk	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 stupid	parataxis
12	up	up	ADP	_	11 walked	compound:prt
13	to	to	ADP	_	14 hunters	case
14	hunters	hunter	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 walked	obl
15	and	and	CCONJ	_	18 learn	cc
16	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	18 learn	aux
17	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	18 learn	advmod
18	learn	learn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 stupid	conj
19	to	to	PART	_	20 run	mark
20	run	run	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	18 learn	xcomp
21	away	away	ADV	_	20 run	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	past	It	stupid property	tree rules
2	live	to-infinitive			vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	walk up	past	it	to hunters result	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme to hunter=Result
4	not learn	could			vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
5	run away	to-infinitive		away property	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

It was not stupid; it had never met predators and could not cope with the animals people brought

The tree, 18 words

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	4 stupid	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 stupid	cop
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 stupid	advmod
4	stupid	stupid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	;	;	PUNCT	_	9 met	punct
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 met	nsubj
7	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 met	aux
8	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	9 met	advmod
9	met	meet	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	4 stupid	parataxis
10	predators	predator	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 met	obj
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 cope	cc
12	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	14 cope	aux
13	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	14 cope	advmod
14	cope	cope	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 stupid	conj
15	with	with	ADP	_	17 animals	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 animals	det
17	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 cope	obl
18	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	19 brought	nsubj
19	brought	bring	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	17 animals	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	not is	past	It		stupid property	tree rules
2	not meet	past · perfect	it	predators		vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent predator=Co-Agent
3	not cope	could			with the animals	vn cope-83-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent with animal=Theme
4	bring	past	people	the animals not said here		vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP ADVP»: agent=Instrument animal=Destination

Option 4

It died out because it could not walk

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 died	nsubj
2	died	die	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	out	out	ADP	_	2 died	compound:prt
4	because	because	SCONJ	_	8 walk	mark
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 walk	nsubj
6	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 walk	aux
7	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	8 walk	advmod
8	walk	walk	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 died	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	die out	past	It						vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute
2	not walk	could	it						vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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/281-extinct-forever-the-dodo-the-passenger-pigeon-the-thylacine-and-more/t1/