Test 6 · ★★★ · Tiny champions: the strongest beetle, the highest-jumping…

Why does a flea need a spring and not just strong muscles?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: flea · What happens: need

This is test 6 · ★★★ of lesson 365 «Tiny champions: the strongest beetle, the highest-jumping flea and the leggiest millipede» 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 need	advmod
2	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 need	aux
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 flea	det
4	flea	flea	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 need	nsubj
5	need	need	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 spring	det
7	spring	spring	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 need	obj
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 muscles	cc
9	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	12 muscles	advmod
10	just	just	ADV	_	12 muscles	advmod
11	strong	strong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 muscles	amod
12	muscles	muscle	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 spring	conj
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 need	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	need	present · do-support	a flea				spring		vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot

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

Fleas have no muscles at all anywhere in their bodies

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fleas	flea	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 have	nsubj
2	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 muscles	det
4	muscles	muscle	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 have	obj
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 all	case
6	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	4 muscles	nmod
7	anywhere	anywhere	ADV	PronType=Ind	2 have	advmod
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 bodies	case
9	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 bodies	nmod:poss
10	bodies	body	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 have	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	Fleas	no muscles		all		in Fleas's bodies; anywhere property	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent muscle=Patient

Option 2

Springs are lighter than legs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Springs	spring	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 lighter	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 lighter	cop
3	lighter	light	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
4	than	than	ADP	_	5 legs	case
5	legs	leg	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 lighter	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Springs					than legs; light property	tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

A spring lets go its energy faster than any muscle could

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 spring	det
2	spring	spring	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lets	nsubj
3	lets	let	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 lets	xcomp
5	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 energy	nmod:poss
6	energy	energy	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 go	obj
7	faster	fast	ADV	Degree=Cmp	4 go	advmod
8	than	than	ADP	_	10 muscle	case
9	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	10 muscle	det
10	muscle	muscle	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 faster	obl
11	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 lets	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	let	present	a spring						tree rules
2	go	infinitive	a spring not said here	its energy				fast property	vn meander-47.7 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location energy=Theme

Option 4

A spring helps it fly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 spring	det
2	spring	spring	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 helps	nsubj
3	helps	help	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 helps	obj
5	fly	fly	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 helps	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	help	present	a spring	it					vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent it=Beneficiary clause=Theme
2	fly	infinitive							vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «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/365-tiny-champions-the-strongest-beetle-the-highest-jumping-flea-and-the-leggiest-millipede/t6/