Test 4 · Odd-looking animals: shoebills, star-nosed moles, saigas,…

How could scientists test whether the star-nosed mole is really smelling underwater and not just touching?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: scientists, nosed mole · What happens: test, nose, be, not touch

This is test 4 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	How	how	ADV	PronType=Int	4 test	advmod
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 test	aux
3	scientists	scientist	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 test	nsubj
4	test	test	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	whether	whether	SCONJ	_	13 smelling	mark
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 mole	det
7	star	star	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 nosed	compound
8	-	-	PUNCT	_	7 star	punct
9	nosed	nose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 mole	amod
10	mole	mole	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 smelling	nsubj
11	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 smelling	cop
12	really	really	ADV	_	13 smelling	advmod
13	smelling	smell	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 test	advcl
14	underwater	underwater	ADV	_	13 smelling	advmod
15	and	and	CCONJ	_	18 touching	cc
16	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	18 touching	advmod
17	just	just	ADV	_	18 touching	advmod
18	touching	touch	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	13 smelling	conj
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 test	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	test	could	scientists		vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	nose	participle			vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme
3	is	present	the nosed mole	smell, underwater property	tree rules
4	not touch	gerund	the nosed mole not said here		vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «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 · ✓ the right answer

Put a smell behind a screen it cannot touch and see if it still finds the food

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Put	put	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 smell	det
3	smell	smell	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Put	obj
4	behind	behind	ADP	_	6 screen	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 screen	det
6	screen	screen	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Put	obl
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 touch	nsubj
8	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 touch	aux
9	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	10 touch	advmod
10	touch	touch	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Put	parataxis
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 see	cc
12	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 touch	conj
13	if	if	SCONJ	_	16 finds	mark
14	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 finds	nsubj
15	still	still	ADV	_	16 finds	advmod
16	finds	find	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 see	ccomp
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 food	det
18	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 finds	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	roles by
1	put	imperative	you not said here	a smell	a screen		vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent smell=Theme behind screen=Destination
2	not touch	can	smell				vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	see	infinitive	smell not said here				vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
4	find a condition, not said to happen	present	smell	the food		still	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent food=Topic

Option 2

Ask the mole to point at the food with its nose

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ask	ask	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 mole	det
3	mole	mole	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ask	obj
4	to	to	PART	_	5 point	mark
5	point	point	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Ask	xcomp
6	at	at	ADP	_	8 food	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 food	det
8	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 point	obl
9	with	with	ADP	_	11 nose	case
10	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 nose	nmod:poss
11	nose	nose	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 point	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ask speech: ask	imperative	you not said here	the mole					vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP whether S_INF»: agent=Agent mole=Recipient clause=Topic
2	point not said to happen	to-infinitive	the mole not said here			the food		with food's nose	vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Take all the water out of the pond and watch it dig

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Take	take	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	4 water	det:predet
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 water	det
4	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Take	obj
5	out	out	ADP	_	8 pond	case
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 pond	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 pond	det
8	pond	pond	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Take	obl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 watch	cc
10	watch	watch	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	1 Take	conj
11	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 watch	obj
12	dig	dig	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Take	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	take	imperative	you not said here	all water	the pond	vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP PP.initial_location»: agent=Agent water=Theme out pond=Initial_Location
2	watch	infinitive	you not said here	water		vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme
3	dig	infinitive	you not said here			vn create-26.4-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

Paint its nose a new colour and see if it still likes worms

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Paint	paint	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 nose	nmod:poss
3	nose	nose	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Paint	obj
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 colour	det
5	new	new	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 colour	amod
6	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Paint	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 see	cc
8	see	see	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	1 Paint	conj
9	if	if	SCONJ	_	12 likes	mark
10	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 likes	nsubj
11	still	still	ADV	_	12 likes	advmod
12	likes	like	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 see	ccomp
13	worms	worm	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 likes	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	paint	imperative	you not said here	its nose		a new colour obl	vn image_impression-25.1 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent nose=Destination
2	see	infinitive	you not said here				vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
3	like a condition, not said to happen	present	nose	worms	still		vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot worm=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/366-odd-looking-animals-shoebills-star-nosed-moles-saigas-pangolins-and-hagfish/t4/