Test 9 · Parrots of the world: macaws, cockatoos, African greys, lo…

«dad reckons the macaws at the riverbank are eating mud cos they're starving» What is best?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: dad, macaws · What happens: reckon, eat, starve, be · To what, where: mud · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 9 of lesson 303 «Parrots of the world: macaws, cockatoos, African greys, lorikeets and the cheeky kea» 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	_	3 reckons	punct
2	dad	dad	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 reckons	nsubj
3	reckons	reckon	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 macaws	det
5	macaws	macaw	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 eating	nsubj
6	at	at	ADP	_	8 riverbank	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 riverbank	det
8	riverbank	riverbank	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 macaws	nmod
9	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 eating	aux
10	eating	eat	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 reckons	ccomp
11	mud	mud	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 eating	obj
12	cos	cos	SCONJ	_	15 starving	mark
13	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 starving	nsubj
14	're	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 starving	aux
15	starving	starve	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	19 best	advcl
16	»	»	PUNCT	_	15 starving	punct
17	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	19 best	nsubj
18	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	19 best	cop
19	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	10 eating	parataxis
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 reckons	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	reckon in a quote	present	dad			vn consider-29.9-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	eat in a quote	present · progressive	the macaws at the riverbank	mud		tree rules
3	starve in a quote	present · progressive	macaws = macaw			tree rules
4	is	present			good property	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

They are drinking, not eating

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 drinking	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 drinking	aux
3	drinking	drink	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 eating	punct
5	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	6 eating	advmod
6	eating	eat	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 drinking	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drink	present · progressive	They						vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	not eat	gerund	They not said here						vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

They are building a dam

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 building	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 building	aux
3	building	build	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 dam	det
5	dam	dam	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 building	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	build	present · progressive	They	a dam					vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset dam=Product

Option 3

Yes, they are starving, because every fruit tree in the forest has died

The tree, 13 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	5 starving	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Yes	punct
3	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 starving	nsubj
4	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 starving	aux
5	starving	starve	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 died	punct
7	because	because	SCONJ	_	15 died	mark
8	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	10 tree	det
9	fruit	fruit	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 tree	compound
10	tree	tree	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 died	nsubj
11	in	in	ADP	_	13 forest	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 forest	det
13	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 tree	nmod
14	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 died	aux
15	died	die	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	5 starving	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	starve	present · progressive	they						tree rules
2	die	present · perfect	every fruit tree in the forest						vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

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

They eat clay on purpose; scientists think it may block poisons or give salt

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 eat	nsubj
2	eat	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	clay	clay	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 eat	obj
4	on	on	ADP	_	5 purpose	case
5	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 eat	obl
6	;	;	PUNCT	_	8 think	punct
7	scientists	scientist	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 think	nsubj
8	think	think	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 eat	parataxis
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 block	nsubj
10	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 block	aux
11	block	block	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 think	ccomp
12	poisons	poison	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 block	obj
13	or	or	CCONJ	_	14 give	cc
14	give	give	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 block	conj
15	salt	salt	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 give	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	eat	present	They	clay	purpose	vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent clay=Patient
2	think speech: other	present	scientists			vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
3	block	may	clay	poisons		vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer poison=Theme
4	give	infinitive	clay not said here	salt		vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent salt=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/303-parrots-of-the-world-macaws-cockatoos-african-greys-lorikeets-and-the-cheeky-kea/t9/