Test 12 · ★ · Animal colours: pink flamingos, rare blue animals, white a…

Why would a black coat be less useful on the open savanna than in a dark forest?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: black coat · What happens: be · To what, where: open savanna

This is test 12 · ★ of lesson 367 «Animal colours: pink flamingos, rare blue animals, white albinos and black panthers» 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	8 useful	advmod
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 useful	aux
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 coat	det
4	black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 coat	amod
5	coat	coat	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 useful	nsubj
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	8 useful	cop
7	less	less	ADV	Degree=Cmp	8 useful	advmod
8	useful	useful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
9	on	on	ADP	_	12 savanna	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 savanna	det
11	open	open	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 savanna	amod
12	savanna	savanna	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 useful	obl
13	than	than	ADP	_	17 forest	case
14	in	in	ADP	_	17 forest	case
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 forest	det
16	dark	dark	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 forest	amod
17	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 savanna	nmod
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 useful	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	would	a black coat			the open savanna than a dark forest		less, useful property	tree rules

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

Savanna animals cannot see the colour black

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Savanna	savanna	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 animals	compound
2	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 see	nsubj
3	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 see	aux
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 see	advmod
5	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 colour	det
7	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 see	obj
8	black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 see	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not see	can	Savanna animals	the colour				black property	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer colour=Stimulus

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Black coats melt in the sun

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 coats	amod
2	coats	coat	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 melt	nsubj
3	melt	melt	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 sun	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 sun	det
6	sun	sun	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 melt	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	melt	present	Black coats			the sun			vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

On bright, open grassland a black cat would stand out

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	On	on	ADP	_	5 grassland	case
2	bright	bright	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 grassland	amod
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 bright	punct
4	open	open	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 grassland	amod
5	grassland	grassland	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 stand	obl
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 cat	det
7	black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 cat	amod
8	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 stand	nsubj
9	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 stand	aux
10	stand	stand	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
11	out	out	ADP	_	10 stand	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	stand out	would	a black cat			bright open grassland			vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on grassland=Location

Option 4

Black fur cannot keep out the rain on the savanna

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 fur	amod
2	fur	fur	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 keep	nsubj
3	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 keep	aux
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 keep	advmod
5	keep	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	out	out	ADP	_	5 keep	compound:prt
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 rain	det
8	rain	rain	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 keep	obj
9	on	on	ADP	_	11 savanna	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 savanna	det
11	savanna	savanna	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 keep	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not keep out	can	Black fur	the rain		the savanna			vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent rain=Theme on savanna=Location

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/367-animal-colours-pink-flamingos-rare-blue-animals-white-albinos-and-black-panthers/t12/