Test 8 · ★ · How owls work: silent wings, turning heads, pellets and ow…

Grandad says an owl calling at night means bad luck is coming. What is true?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: Grandad, owl, bad luck · What happens: say, call, mean, come, be · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 8 · ★ 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

Sentence 1: Grandad says an owl calling at night means bad luck is coming.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Grandad	Grandad	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 says	nsubj
2	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 owl	det
4	owl	owl	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 means	nsubj
5	calling	call	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 owl	acl
6	at	at	ADP	_	7 night	case
7	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 calling	obl
8	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 says	ccomp
9	bad	bad	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 luck	amod
10	luck	luck	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 coming	nsubj
11	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 coming	aux
12	coming	come	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 means	ccomp
13	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 says	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	when	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	Grandad		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	call	gerund	a owl not said here	night	vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	mean	present	a owl		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
4	come	present · progressive	bad luck		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP 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.

Sentence 2: What is true?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 true	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 true	cop
3	true	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 true	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present						true property	tree rules

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

It is an old story; the owl calls to keep its patch or find a partner

The tree, 16 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 story	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 story	cop
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 story	det
4	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 story	amod
5	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	;	;	PUNCT	_	9 calls	punct
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 owl	det
8	owl	owl	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 calls	nsubj
9	calls	call	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 story	parataxis
10	to	to	PART	_	11 keep	mark
11	keep	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 calls	xcomp
12	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 patch	nmod:poss
13	patch	patch	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 keep	obj
14	or	or	CCONJ	_	15 find	cc
15	find	find	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 keep	conj
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 partner	det
17	partner	partner	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 find	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a old story	tree rules
2	call	present	the owl		vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	keep	to-infinitive	the owl not said here	owl's patch	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent patch=Theme
4	find	infinitive	the owl not said here	a partner	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent partner=Topic

Option 2

Owls call only when someone is ill

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Owls	owl	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 call	nsubj
2	call	call	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	only	only	ADV	_	2 call	advmod
4	when	when	SCONJ	_	7 ill	mark
5	someone	someone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	7 ill	nsubj
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 ill	cop
7	ill	ill	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 call	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	call	present	Owls						vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	is	present	someone					ill property	tree rules

Option 3

Owls call only before a storm

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Owls	owl	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 call	nsubj
2	call	call	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	only	only	ADV	_	2 call	advmod
4	before	before	ADP	_	6 storm	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 storm	det
6	storm	storm	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 call	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	call	present	Owls				before a storm		vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

It is true in every country of the world, as everyone knows

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 true	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 true	cop
3	true	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 country	case
5	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	6 country	det
6	country	country	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 true	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 world	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 world	det
9	world	world	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 country	nmod
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 knows	punct
11	as	as	SCONJ	_	13 knows	mark
12	everyone	everyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Tot	13 knows	nsubj
13	knows	know	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 true	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It			every country of the world		true property	tree rules
2	know	present	everyone						vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «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/t8/