Test 10 · Odd-looking animals: shoebills, star-nosed moles, saigas,…

Why does hagfish slime work better than spines against a shark?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: hagfish slime · What happens: work

This is test 10 of lesson 366 «Odd-looking animals: shoebills, star-nosed moles, saigas, pangolins and hagfish» 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 work	advmod
2	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 work	aux
3	hagfish	hagfish	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 slime	compound
4	slime	slime	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 work	nsubj
5	work	work	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	better	well	ADV	Degree=Cmp	5 work	advmod
7	than	than	ADP	_	8 spines	case
8	spines	spine	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 work	obl
9	against	against	ADP	_	11 shark	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 shark	det
11	shark	shark	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 spines	nmod
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 work	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	work	present · do-support	hagfish slime					than spines against a shark; well property	vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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

The slime makes the hagfish invisible in the dark deep water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 slime	det
2	slime	slime	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 hagfish	det
5	hagfish	hagfish	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 makes	obj
6	invisible	invisible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 makes	xcomp
7	in	in	ADP	_	11 water	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 water	det
9	dark	dark	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 water	amod
10	deep	deep	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 water	amod
11	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 makes	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present	the slime	the hagfish		the dark deep water		invisible property	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset hagfish=Product

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

It clogs the gills so the shark cannot breathe and spits it out

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 clogs	nsubj
2	clogs	clog	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 gills	det
4	gills	gill	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 clogs	obj
5	so	so	SCONJ	_	10 breathe	mark
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 shark	det
7	shark	shark	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 breathe	nsubj
8	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 breathe	aux
9	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	10 breathe	advmod
10	breathe	breathe	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 clogs	advcl
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 spits	cc
12	spits	spit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 clogs	conj
13	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 spits	obj
14	out	out	ADP	_	12 spits	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	clog	present	It	the gills	vn fill-9.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme gill=Destination
2	not breathe	can	the shark		vn breathe-40.1.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	spit out	present		shark	vn breathe-40.1.2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent it=Theme

Option 3

Spines would be far too heavy for a small hagfish to carry

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Spines	spine	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 heavy	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 heavy	aux
3	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 heavy	cop
4	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	6 heavy	advmod
5	too	too	ADV	_	6 heavy	advmod
6	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
7	for	for	ADP	_	10 hagfish	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 hagfish	det
9	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 hagfish	amod
10	hagfish	hagfish	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 heavy	obl
11	to	to	PART	_	12 carry	mark
12	carry	carry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 heavy	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	would	Spines					for a small hagfish; far, heavy property	tree rules
2	carry	to-infinitive	Spines not said here						vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 4

Sharks love the taste of spines and eat them happily

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sharks	shark	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 love	nsubj
2	love	love	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 taste	det
4	taste	taste	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 love	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 spines	case
6	spines	spine	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 taste	nmod
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 eat	cc
8	eat	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 love	conj
9	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 eat	obj
10	happily	happily	ADV	_	8 eat	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	love	present	Sharks	the taste of spines		vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer taste=Stimulus
2	eat	present	Sharks not said here	Sharks = shark	happily property	vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient
3	taste			spines		nom taste «cognition transitive»: of=patient

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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