Test 9 · ★★★ · Tiny champions: the strongest beetle, the highest-jumping…

Why would a tiger beetle run in short bursts instead of one long sprint?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: tiger beetle · What happens: run · To what, where: short bursts

This is test 9 · ★★★ 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	6 run	advmod
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 run	aux
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 beetle	det
4	tiger	tiger	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 beetle	compound
5	beetle	beetle	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 run	nsubj
6	run	run	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 bursts	case
8	short	short	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 bursts	amod
9	bursts	burst	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 run	obl
10	instead	instead	ADV	ExtPos=ADP	14 sprint	case
11	of	of	ADP	_	10 instead	fixed
12	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	14 sprint	nummod
13	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 sprint	amod
14	sprint	sprint	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 run	obl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 run	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	run	would	a tiger beetle			short bursts		instead one long sprint	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in burst=Trajectory

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 only likes running downhill, and has to stop at the bottom of every slope

The tree, 15 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 likes	nsubj
2	only	only	ADV	_	3 likes	advmod
3	likes	like	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	running	run	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 likes	xcomp
5	downhill	downhill	ADV	_	4 running	advmod
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 has	punct
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 has	cc
8	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 likes	conj
9	to	to	PART	_	10 stop	mark
10	stop	stop	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 has	xcomp
11	at	at	ADP	_	13 bottom	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 bottom	det
13	bottom	bottom	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 stop	obl
14	of	of	ADP	_	16 slope	case
15	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	16 slope	det
16	slope	slope	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 bottom	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	other	roles by
1	like	present	It			vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
2	run not said to happen	gerund			downhill property	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	have	present				tree rules
4	stop	to-infinitive		the bottom of every slope		vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at bottom=Location

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

It must stop to see again, because its eyes cannot keep up

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	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 stop	aux
3	stop	stop	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 see	mark
5	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 stop	advcl
6	again	again	ADV	_	5 see	advmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 keep	punct
8	because	because	SCONJ	_	13 keep	mark
9	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 eyes	nmod:poss
10	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 keep	nsubj
11	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 keep	aux
12	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	13 keep	advmod
13	keep	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 stop	conj
14	up	up	ADP	_	13 keep	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	when	roles by
1	stop	must	It		vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality
2	see	to-infinitive		again	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
3	not keep up	can	its eyes		vn sustain-55.6 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Sand makes it slow down

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 makes	nsubj
2	makes	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 makes	obj
4	slow	slow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 makes	xcomp
5	down	down	ADP	_	4 slow	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present	Sand	it					tree rules
2	slow down	infinitive							vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 4

It runs out of legs

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	2 runs	nsubj
2	runs	run	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	out	out	ADP	_	5 legs	case
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 legs	case
5	legs	leg	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 runs	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	run	present	It			legs			vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme out leg=Trajectory

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/t9/