Test 11 · ★ · How owls work: silent wings, turning heads, pellets and ow…

What would happen to an owl's brain if the arteries in its neck were pinched when it turned?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: neck · What happens: happen, pinch, turn · To what, where: arteries

This is test 11 · ★ of lesson 302 «How owls work: silent wings, turning heads, pellets and owl myths» 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 happen	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	8 brain	case
5	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 owl	det
6	owl	owl	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 brain	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 owl	case
8	brain	brain	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 happen	obl
9	if	if	SCONJ	_	16 pinched	mark
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 arteries	det
11	arteries	artery	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 pinched	nsubj:pass
12	in	in	ADP	_	14 neck	case
13	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 neck	nmod:poss
14	neck	neck	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 arteries	nmod
15	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	16 pinched	aux:pass
16	pinched	pinch	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 happen	advcl
17	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	19 turned	advmod
18	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 turned	nsubj
19	turned	turn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	16 pinched	conj
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	happen	would			to a owl's brain	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	pinch a condition, not said to happen	past · passive		the arteries in brain's neck		vn steal-10.5 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
3	turn	past	neck			vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=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 · ← Mova's choice

Nothing, because brains need no blood

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 need	punct
3	because	because	SCONJ	_	5 need	mark
4	brains	brain	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 need	nsubj
5	need	need	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Nothing	parataxis
6	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	7 blood	det
7	blood	blood	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 need	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	need	present	brains	no blood					vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot blood=Theme

Option 2

It would grow a new brain

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 brain	det
5	new	new	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 brain	amod
6	brain	brain	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 grow	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	would	It	a new brain					vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location brain=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

It could lose blood, which is why owls have wide holes for the arteries

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	3 lose	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 lose	aux
3	lose	lose	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	blood	blood	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lose	obj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 why	punct
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 why	nsubj
7	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 why	cop
8	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	4 blood	acl:relcl
9	owls	owl	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 have	nsubj
10	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 why	advcl:relcl
11	wide	wide	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 holes	amod
12	holes	hole	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 have	obj
13	for	for	ADP	_	15 arteries	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 arteries	det
15	arteries	artery	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 holes	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	lose	could	It	blood		vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent blood=Eventuality
2	is	present	blood		why property	tree rules
3	have	present	owls	wide holes	for the arteries	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hole=Patient

Option 4

It would turn its head faster

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 turn	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 turn	aux
3	turn	turn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 head	nmod:poss
5	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 turn	obj
6	faster	fast	ADV	Degree=Cmp	3 turn	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	turn	would	It	its head				fast property	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V ADJ.result»: agent=Theme head=Result

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.

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