Test 4 · The body's rough side: burps, farts, snot, sneezes, hiccup…

Why might a cold spread faster in a class full of nose pickers?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: cold · What happens: spread

This is test 4 of lesson 364 «The body's rough side: burps, farts, snot, sneezes, hiccups and poo» 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	5 spread	advmod
2	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 spread	aux
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 cold	det
4	cold	cold	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 spread	nsubj
5	spread	spread	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	faster	fast	ADV	Degree=Cmp	5 spread	advmod
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 class	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 class	det
9	class	class	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 faster	obl
10	full	full	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 class	amod
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 pickers	case
12	nose	nose	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 pickers	compound
13	pickers	picker	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 full	obl
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 spread	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	spread	might	a cold					fast property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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

Nose picking makes the germs grow bigger and stronger

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nose	nose	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 picking	compound
2	picking	picking	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 makes	nsubj
3	makes	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 germs	det
5	germs	germ	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 grow	nsubj
6	grow	grow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 makes	xcomp
7	bigger	big	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 makes	xcomp
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 stronger	cc
9	stronger	strong	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	7 bigger	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present	Nose picking					big property	tree rules
2	grow	present	the germs						vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

Colds spread through bogeys flying through the air across the classroom

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Colds	cold	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 spread	nsubj
2	spread	spread	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	through	through	ADP	_	4 bogeys	case
4	bogeys	bogey	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 spread	obl
5	flying	fly	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 bogeys	acl
6	through	through	ADP	_	8 air	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 air	det
8	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 flying	obl
9	across	across	ADP	_	11 classroom	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 classroom	det
11	classroom	classroom	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 flying	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	spread	present	Colds			bogeys			vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through bogey=Location
2	fly	gerund	bogeys not said here			the air		across the classroom	vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through air=Location

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Picking puts germs on fingers, and fingers touch everything

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Picking	pick	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 puts	nsubj
2	puts	put	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	germs	germ	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 puts	obj
4	on	on	ADP	_	5 fingers	case
5	fingers	finger	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 puts	obl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 touch	punct
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 touch	cc
8	fingers	finger	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 touch	nsubj
9	touch	touch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 puts	parataxis
10	everything	everything	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Tot	9 touch	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	pick	gerund				vn chew-39.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	put	present		germs	fingers	vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent germ=Theme on finger=Destination
3	touch	present	fingers	everything		vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme everything=Co-Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

Picking makes noses run faster

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Picking	pick	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 makes	nsubj
2	makes	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	noses	nose	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 makes	obj
4	run	run	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 makes	xcomp
5	faster	fast	ADV	Degree=Cmp	4 run	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	pick	gerund				vn chew-39.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	make	present		noses		tree rules
3	run	infinitive	noses not said here		fast property	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «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/364-the-body-s-rough-side-burps-farts-snot-sneezes-hiccups-and-poo/t4/