Test 9 · ★ · A kitten at home: litter trays, scratching posts and play

What would happen if the only place a kitten could scratch were the sofa?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: kitten, only place · What happens: happen, scratch, be · To what, where: only place, sofa

This is test 9 · ★ of lesson 327 «A kitten at home: litter trays, scratching posts and play» 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	_	14 sofa	mark
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 place	det
6	only	only	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 place	amod
7	place	place	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 sofa	nsubj
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 kitten	det
9	kitten	kitten	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 scratch	nsubj
10	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 scratch	aux
11	scratch	scratch	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 place	acl:relcl
12	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 sofa	cop
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 sofa	det
14	sofa	sofa	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 happen	advcl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	happen	would			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	scratch	could	a kitten	the only place not said here	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent place=Theme
3	is a a condition, not said to happen	past	the only place	the sofa	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 · ← Mova's choice

It would stop scratching for ever, since there was nowhere it was allowed

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	scratching	scratch	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	14 allowed	csubj:pass
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 ever	case
6	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	4 scratching	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 was	punct
8	since	since	SCONJ	_	10 was	mark
9	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	10 was	expl
10	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 allowed	aux:pass
11	nowhere	nowhere	ADV	PronType=Neg	10 was	advmod
12	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 allowed	nsubj:pass
13	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 allowed	aux:pass
14	allowed	allow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 stop	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	stop	would	It		vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality
2	scratch	gerund			vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent for ever=Theme
3	allow	past · passive		it	vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Beneficiary

Option 2

Its claws would fall off

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 claws	nmod:poss
2	claws	claw	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 fall	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 fall	aux
4	fall	fall	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	off	off	ADP	_	4 fall	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fall off	would	Its claws						vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

It would scratch the sofa, because it needs to scratch somewhere

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 scratch	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 scratch	aux
3	scratch	scratch	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 sofa	det
5	sofa	sofa	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 scratch	obj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 needs	punct
7	because	because	SCONJ	_	9 needs	mark
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 needs	nsubj
9	needs	need	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 scratch	parataxis
10	to	to	PART	_	11 scratch	mark
11	scratch	scratch	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 needs	xcomp
12	somewhere	somewhere	ADV	PronType=Ind	11 scratch	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	scratch	would	It	the sofa		vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sofa=Theme
2	need	present	sofa			vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
3	scratch not said to happen	to-infinitive	sofa not said here		somewhere property	vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

It would scratch only the dog

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 scratch	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 scratch	aux
3	scratch	scratch	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	only	only	ADV	_	6 dog	advmod
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 dog	det
6	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 scratch	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	scratch	would	It	the dog					vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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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