Test 8 · Eagles: golden eagles, harpy eagles, Steller's sea eagles…

Hunters shoot a few harpy eagles each year in a forest. Why does this hurt the harpies more than it would hurt sparrows?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: Hunters, this, forest · What happens: shoot, hurt · To what, where: few harpy eagles, forest, more, sparrows

This is test 8 of lesson 323 «Eagles: golden eagles, harpy eagles, Steller's sea eagles and eagle eyes» 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: Hunters shoot a few harpy eagles each year in a forest.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Hunters	hunter	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 shoot	nsubj
2	shoot	shoot	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 eagles	det
4	few	few	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 eagles	amod
5	harpy	harpy	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 eagles	compound
6	eagles	eagle	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 shoot	obj
7	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	8 year	det
8	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 shoot	obl:unmarked
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 forest	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 forest	det
11	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 shoot	obl
12	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 shoot	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	shoot	present	Hunters	a few harpy eagles		a forest	year		vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: agent=Agent eagle=Theme in forest=Destination

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: Why does this hurt the harpies more than it would hurt sparrows?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	4 hurt	advmod
2	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 hurt	aux
3	this	this	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	4 hurt	nsubj
4	hurt	hurt	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 harpies	det
6	harpies	harpy	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 more	nsubj
7	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	4 hurt	obj
8	than	than	SCONJ	_	11 hurt	mark
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 hurt	nsubj
10	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 hurt	aux
11	hurt	hurt	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 more	advcl
12	sparrows	sparrow	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 hurt	obj
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 hurt	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hurt	present · do-support	this	more					vn hurt-40.8.3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer more=Patient
2	hurt	would	forest	sparrows					vn hurt-40.8.3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer sparrow=Patient

The options

Option 1

Harpies are smaller than sparrows

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Harpies	harpy	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 smaller	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 smaller	cop
3	smaller	small	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
4	than	than	ADP	_	5 sparrows	case
5	sparrows	sparrow	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 smaller	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Harpies					than sparrows; small property	tree rules

Option 2

Sparrows also eat harpy eggs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sparrows	sparrow	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 eat	nsubj
2	also	also	ADV	_	3 eat	advmod
3	eat	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	harpy	harpy	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 eggs	compound
5	eggs	egg	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 eat	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat	present	Sparrows	harpy eggs					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent egg=Patient

Option 3

Harpies cannot see hunters coming, because their eyes are weaker than a sparrow's

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Harpies	harpy	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 see	nsubj
2	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 see	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 see	advmod
4	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	hunters	hunter	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 see	obj
6	coming	come	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 hunters	acl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 weaker	punct
8	because	because	SCONJ	_	12 weaker	mark
9	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 eyes	nmod:poss
10	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 weaker	nsubj
11	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 weaker	cop
12	weaker	weak	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	4 see	conj
13	than	than	ADP	_	15 sparrow	case
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 sparrow	det
15	sparrow	sparrow	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 weaker	obl
16	's	's	PART	_	15 sparrow	case

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	not see	can	Harpies	hunters		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer hunter=Stimulus
2	come	gerund	hunters not said here			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	is	present	Harpies's eyes		than a sparrow; weak property	tree rules

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

Harpies raise one chick every few years, so losses are slow to replace

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Harpies	harpy	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 raise	nsubj
2	raise	raise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	4 chick	nummod
4	chick	chick	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 raise	obj
5	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	7 years	det
6	few	few	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 years	amod
7	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 raise	obl:unmarked
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 slow	punct
9	so	so	ADV	_	12 slow	advmod
10	losses	loss	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 slow	nsubj
11	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 slow	cop
12	slow	slow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 raise	advcl
13	to	to	PART	_	14 replace	mark
14	replace	replace	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 slow	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	raise	present	Harpies	one chick	year		vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chick=Theme
2	is	present	losses			slow property	tree rules
3	replace	to-infinitive	losses not said here				vn substitute-13.6.2-1 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=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/323-eagles-golden-eagles-harpy-eagles-stellers-sea-eagles-and-eagle-eyes/t8/