Test 4 · Tortoises, lizards and geckos as pets: heat, light and was…

«grabbed the gecko by the tail and it came off, it's broken now» What is true?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: gecko · What happens: grab, come off, break, be · To what, where: gecko

This is test 4 of lesson 329 «Tortoises, lizards and geckos as pets: heat, light and washing hands» 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	_	2 grabbed	punct
2	grabbed	grab	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 gecko	det
4	gecko	gecko	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 grabbed	obj
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 tail	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 tail	det
7	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 grabbed	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 came	cc
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 came	nsubj
10	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 grabbed	conj
11	off	off	ADV	_	10 came	advmod
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 broken	punct
13	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 broken	nsubj:pass
14	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 broken	aux:pass
15	broken	break	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 grabbed	parataxis
16	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	15 broken	advmod
17	»	»	PUNCT	_	15 broken	punct
18	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	20 true	nsubj
19	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	20 true	cop
20	true	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 broken	conj
21	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 grabbed	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	grab in a quote	past		the gecko		by the tail	vn steal-10.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gecko=Theme
2	come off in a quote	past	gecko			off property	vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme
3	break in a quote	present · passive		gecko	now		vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
4	is	present				true 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

It is broken for ever and the gecko will die soon, because geckos need their tails to live

The tree, 18 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	3 broken	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 broken	aux:pass
3	broken	break	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 ever	case
5	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	3 broken	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 die	cc
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 gecko	det
8	gecko	gecko	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 die	nsubj
9	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 die	aux
10	die	die	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 broken	conj
11	soon	soon	ADV	Degree=Pos	10 die	advmod
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 need	punct
13	because	because	SCONJ	_	15 need	mark
14	geckos	gecko	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 need	nsubj
15	need	need	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 broken	conj
16	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 tails	nmod:poss
17	tails	tail	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 need	obj
18	to	to	PART	_	19 live	mark
19	live	live	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	15 need	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	break	present · passive		It		vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
2	die	future	the gecko		soon property	vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute
3	need	present	geckos	their tails		tree rules
4	live not said to happen	to-infinitive	their tails not said here			vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

Geckos like having their tails pulled

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Geckos	gecko	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 having	nsubj
2	like	like	SCONJ	_	3 having	mark
3	having	have	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 tails	nmod:poss
5	tails	tail	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 pulled	nsubj
6	pulled	pull	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 having	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	gerund	Geckos						tree rules
2	pull	participle	Geckos's tails						vn slide-11.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Geckos drop tails to escape; it will regrow shorter, but never pick one up by the tail

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Geckos	gecko	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 drop	nsubj
2	drop	drop	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	tails	tail	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 drop	obj
4	to	to	PART	_	5 escape	mark
5	escape	escape	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 tails	acl
6	;	;	PUNCT	_	9 regrow	punct
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 regrow	nsubj
8	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 regrow	aux
9	regrow	regrow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 drop	conj
10	shorter	short	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	9 regrow	xcomp
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 pick	punct
12	but	but	CCONJ	_	14 pick	cc
13	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	14 pick	advmod
14	pick	pick	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	2 drop	parataxis
15	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	14 pick	obj
16	up	up	ADP	_	14 pick	compound:prt
17	by	by	ADP	_	19 tail	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 tail	det
19	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 pick	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	drop	present	Geckos	tails		vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tail=Theme
2	escape	to-infinitive	Geckos not said here	tails not said here		vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	regrow	future	it		short property	tree rules
4	not pick up	infinitive		one	by the tail	vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Topic

Option 4

The tail will grow back exactly the same tomorrow

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 tail	det
2	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 grow	nsubj
3	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 grow	aux
4	grow	grow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	back	back	ADV	_	4 grow	advmod
6	exactly	exactly	ADV	_	8 same	advmod
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 same	det
8	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 tomorrow	amod
9	tomorrow	tomorrow	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 grow	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow back	future	the tail				tomorrow		vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: 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/329-tortoises-lizards-and-geckos-as-pets-heat-light-and-washing-hands/t4/