Exam question 3 · Owls of the world: barn owls, eagle owls, elf owls and bur…

Ascertain the reason for which the burrowing owl distributes animal dung around the entrance to its burrow.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, burrowing owl · What happens: ascertain, burrow, distribute · To what, where: reason, animal dung, burrow, entrance

This is exam question 3 of lesson 301 «Owls of the world: barn owls, eagle owls, elf owls and burrowing owls» of the biology course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 distributes	obl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 owl	det
7	burrowing	burrow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 owl	amod
8	owl	owl	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 distributes	nsubj
9	distributes	distribute	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	acl
10	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 dung	compound
11	dung	dung	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 distributes	obj
12	around	around	ADP	_	14 entrance	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 entrance	det
14	entrance	entrance	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 distributes	obl
15	to	to	ADP	_	17 burrow	case
16	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 burrow	nmod:poss
17	burrow	burrow	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 distributes	obl
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the reason				vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	burrow	gerund						vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent
3	distribute	present	the burrowing owl	animal dung	owl's burrow	the entrance	for the reason	vn contribute-13.2-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent dung=Theme to burrow=Recipient

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 dung conceals the scent of the eggs and chicks from all predators

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 dung	det
2	dung	dung	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 conceals	nsubj
3	conceals	conceal	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 scent	det
5	scent	scent	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 conceals	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 eggs	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 eggs	det
8	eggs	egg	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 scent	nmod
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 chicks	cc
10	chicks	chick	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 eggs	conj
11	from	from	ADP	_	13 predators	case
12	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	13 predators	det
13	predators	predator	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 conceals	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	conceal	present	the dung	the scent of the eggs and chicks		all predators			vn concealment-16 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent scent=Patient from predator=Beneficiary
2	scent			the eggs and chicks					nom scent «cognition transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

The dung serves as food for the owl's chicks

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 dung	det
2	dung	dung	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 serves	nsubj
3	serves	serve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	as	as	ADP	_	5 food	case
5	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 serves	obl
6	for	for	ADP	_	10 chicks	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 owl	det
8	owl	owl	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 chicks	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 owl	case
10	chicks	chick	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 serves	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	serve	present	the dung					as food; for the owl's chicks	vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent as food=Attribute

Option 3

The dung insulates the burrow against the cold of winter

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 dung	det
2	dung	dung	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 insulates	nsubj
3	insulates	insulate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 burrow	det
5	burrow	burrow	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 insulates	obj
6	against	against	ADP	_	8 cold	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 cold	det
8	cold	cold	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 insulates	obl
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 winter	case
10	winter	winter	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 cold	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	insulate	present	the dung	the burrow				against the cold of winter	vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent burrow=Destination

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

The dung attracts dung beetles, which the owl subsequently consumes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 dung	det
2	dung	dung	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 attracts	nsubj
3	attracts	attract	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	dung	dung	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 beetles	compound
5	beetles	beetle	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 attracts	obj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 consumes	punct
7	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 consumes	obj
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 owl	det
9	owl	owl	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 consumes	nsubj
10	subsequently	subsequently	ADV	_	11 consumes	advmod
11	consumes	consume	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 beetles	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	attract	present	the dung	dung beetles					vn lure-59.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent beetle=Patient
2	consume	present	the owl	dung beetles				subsequently property	vn consume-66 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=Asset

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/301-owls-of-the-world-barn-owls-eagle-owls-elf-owls-and-burrowing-owls/e3/