Test 3 · ★★ · Animal myths put right: elephants and mice, lemmings, ostr…

«my nan says ostriches stick their heads in sand when scared» What would happen to a bird that really did that?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: nan, ostriches · What happens: say, stick, happen, do · To what, where: heads, sand, bird · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 3 · ★★ of lesson 295 «Animal myths put right: elephants and mice, lemmings, ostriches and goldfish» 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	«	«	PUNCT	_	4 says	punct
2	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 nan	nmod:poss
3	nan	nan	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 says	nsubj
4	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	ostriches	ostrich	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 stick	nsubj
6	stick	stick	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 says	ccomp
7	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 heads	nmod:poss
8	heads	head	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 stick	obj
9	in	in	ADP	_	10 sand	case
10	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 stick	obl
11	when	when	SCONJ	_	12 scared	mark
12	scared	scared	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 stick	advcl
13	»	»	PUNCT	_	6 stick	punct
14	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	16 happen	nsubj
15	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	16 happen	aux
16	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 stick	parataxis
17	to	to	ADP	_	19 bird	case
18	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	19 bird	det
19	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 happen	obl
20	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	22 did	obj
21	really	really	ADV	_	22 did	advmod
22	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	19 bird	acl:relcl
23	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	22 did	obj
24	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 says	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert in a quote	present	my nan				vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	stick in a quote	present	ostriches	ostriches's heads	sand		tree rules
3	happen	would				to a bird	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
4	do	past		a bird			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.

The options

Option 1 · ✓ the right answer

It could not see danger or breathe well, so it would not survive long

The tree, 14 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 see	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 see	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 see	advmod
4	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	danger	danger	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 see	obj
6	or	or	CCONJ	_	7 breathe	cc
7	breathe	breathe	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 see	conj
8	well	well	ADV	Degree=Pos	7 breathe	advmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 survive	punct
10	so	so	ADV	_	14 survive	advmod
11	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 survive	nsubj
12	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	14 survive	aux
13	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	14 survive	advmod
14	survive	survive	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 see	conj
15	long	long	ADV	Degree=Pos	14 survive	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	not see	could	It	danger		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer danger=Stimulus
2	breathe	infinitive			well property	vn breathe-40.1.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	not survive	would	danger		long property	vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

It would be perfectly safe, because lions cannot see a bird without a head

The tree, 15 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 safe	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 safe	aux
3	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 safe	cop
4	perfectly	perfectly	ADV	_	5 safe	advmod
5	safe	safe	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 see	punct
7	because	because	SCONJ	_	11 see	mark
8	lions	lion	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 see	nsubj
9	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 see	aux
10	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	11 see	advmod
11	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 safe	parataxis
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 bird	det
13	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 see	obj
14	without	without	ADP	_	16 head	case
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 head	det
16	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 see	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	would	It					perfectly, safe property	tree rules
2	not see	can	lions	a bird				without a head	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer bird=Stimulus

Option 3

It would learn to breathe sand

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	3 learn	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 learn	aux
3	learn	learn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 breathe	mark
5	breathe	breathe	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 learn	xcomp
6	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 breathe	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	learn	would	It						vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	breathe	to-infinitive		sand					vn breathe-40.1.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sand=Theme

Option 4

It would grow a longer neck

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	3 grow	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 grow	aux
3	grow	grow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 neck	det
5	longer	long	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	6 neck	amod
6	neck	neck	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 grow	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	would	It	a longer neck					vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location neck=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/295-animal-myths-put-right-elephants-and-mice-lemmings-ostriches-and-goldfish/t3/