Test 7 · ★ · How owls work: silent wings, turning heads, pellets and ow…

What would happen if an owl had flight feathers as stiff and smooth as a pigeon's?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: owl · What happens: happen, have · To what, where: flight feathers

This is test 7 · ★ 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	if	if	SCONJ	_	7 had	mark
5	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 owl	det
6	owl	owl	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 had	nsubj
7	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
8	flight	flight	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 feathers	compound
9	feathers	feather	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 had	obj
10	as	as	ADP	_	11 stiff	case
11	stiff	stiff	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 had	obl
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 smooth	cc
13	smooth	smooth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 stiff	conj
14	as	as	ADP	_	16 pigeon	case
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 pigeon	det
16	pigeon	pigeon	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 smooth	obl
17	's	's	PART	_	16 pigeon	case
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	have a condition, not said to happen	past	a owl	flight feathers				as stiff	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent feather=Patient

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

It would stop needing to hunt

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 stop	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 stop	aux
3	stop	stop	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	needing	need	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 stop	xcomp
5	to	to	PART	_	6 hunt	mark
6	hunt	hunt	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 needing	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	roles by
1	stop	would	It	vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality
2	need	gerund		vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
3	hunt not said to happen	to-infinitive		vn hunt-35.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Mice would hear it coming and escape more often

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Mice	mouse	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 hear	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 hear	aux
3	hear	hear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 hear	obj
5	coming	come	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 hear	xcomp
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 escape	cc
7	escape	escape	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 hear	conj
8	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	9 often	advmod
9	often	often	ADV	_	7 escape	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	hear	would	Mice	it		tree rules
2	come	gerund				vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	escape	infinitive	Mice not said here		often property	vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

It would fly in total silence

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 fly	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 fly	aux
3	fly	fly	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 silence	case
5	total	total	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 silence	amod
6	silence	silence	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 fly	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fly	would	It			total silence			vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in silence=Location

Option 4

It would see much better at night

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 see	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 see	aux
3	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	much	much	ADV	_	5 better	advmod
5	better	good	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 see	xcomp
6	at	at	ADP	_	7 night	case
7	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 see	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	see	would	It				night	good property	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer

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/302-how-owls-work-silent-wings-turning-heads-pellets-and-owl-myths/t7/