Exam question 1 · A kitten at home: litter trays, scratching posts and play

Identify the reason for which kittens knead with their forepaws.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, kittens · What happens: identify, knead · To what, where: reason

This is exam question 1 of lesson 327 «A kitten at home: litter trays, scratching posts and play» of the biology course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 knead	obl
6	kittens	kitten	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 knead	nsubj
7	knead	knead	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	acl:relcl
8	with	with	ADP	_	10 forepaws	case
9	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 forepaws	nmod:poss
10	forepaws	forepaw	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 knead	obl
11	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the reason					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	knead	present	kittens					for the reason; with kittens's forepaws	vn touch-20 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with forepaw=Instrument

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

The behaviour is learnt from dogs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 behaviour	det
2	behaviour	behaviour	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 learnt	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 learnt	aux:pass
4	learnt	learn	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	from	from	ADP	_	6 dogs	case
6	dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 learnt	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	learn	present · passive		the behaviour				from dogs	vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: subject=Topic from dog=Source

Option 2

The behaviour is a signal of hunger for meat and is directed at the owner

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 behaviour	det
2	behaviour	behaviour	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 signal	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 signal	cop
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 signal	det
5	signal	signal	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 hunger	case
7	hunger	hunger	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 signal	nmod
8	for	for	ADP	_	9 meat	case
9	meat	meat	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 signal	nmod
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 directed	cc
11	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 directed	aux:pass
12	directed	direct	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 signal	conj
13	at	at	ADP	_	15 owner	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 owner	det
15	owner	owner	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 directed	obl:agent

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the behaviour	a signal				of hunger; for meat	tree rules
2	direct	present · passive	the owner						vn performance-26.7 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The behaviour originates in stimulating the flow of the mother's milk

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 behaviour	det
2	behaviour	behaviour	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 originates	nsubj
3	originates	originate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	in	in	SCONJ	_	5 stimulating	mark
5	stimulating	stimulate	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 originates	advcl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 flow	det
7	flow	flow	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 stimulating	obj
8	of	of	ADP	_	12 milk	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 mother	det
10	mother	mother	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 milk	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 mother	case
12	milk	milk	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 flow	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	originate	present	the behaviour		vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	stimulate	gerund	the behaviour not said here	the flow of the mother's milk	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus flow=Experiencer
3	flow		the mother's milk		nom flow «event intransitive»: of=agent

Option 4

The behaviour serves to sharpen the teeth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 behaviour	det
2	behaviour	behaviour	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 serves	nsubj
3	serves	serve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 sharpen	mark
5	sharpen	sharpen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 serves	xcomp
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 teeth	det
7	teeth	tooth	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 sharpen	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	serve	present	the behaviour						tree rules
2	sharpen	to-infinitive	the behaviour not said here	the teeth					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent tooth=Patient

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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