Test 3 · Minibeasts in the house: house spiders, silverfish, woodli…

«you swallow 8 spiders a year in your sleep, it's a fact, it's got a number» Why do made-up facts with numbers sound so believable?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, it, sleep, your · What happens: swallow, be, get, make up, sound, sleep · To what, where: 8 spiders, sleep, fact, number, facts · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 3 of lesson 370 «Minibeasts in the house: house spiders, silverfish, woodlice, moths and cockroaches» 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	«	«	PUNCT	_	3 swallow	punct
2	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	3 swallow	nsubj
3	swallow	swallow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 fact	csubj
4	8	8	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	5 spiders	nummod
5	spiders	spider	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 swallow	obj
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 year	det
7	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 swallow	obl:unmarked
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 sleep	case
9	your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 sleep	nmod:poss
10	sleep	sleep	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 swallow	obl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 swallow	punct
12	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 fact	nsubj
13	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 fact	cop
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 fact	det
15	fact	fact	NOUN	Number=Sing	31 sound	obl
16	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 fact	punct
17	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	19 got	nsubj
18	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	19 got	aux
19	got	get	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	15 fact	acl
20	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	21 number	det
21	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 got	obj
22	»	»	PUNCT	_	19 got	punct
23	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	25 made	advmod
24	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	25 made	aux
25	made	make	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	19 got	advcl
26	-	-	PUNCT	_	27 up	punct
27	up	up	ADP	_	25 made	compound:prt
28	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	25 made	obj
29	with	with	ADP	_	30 numbers	case
30	numbers	number	NOUN	Number=Plur	28 facts	nmod
31	sound	sound	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
32	so	so	ADV	_	33 believable	advmod
33	believable	believable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	31 sound	xcomp
34	?	?	PUNCT	_	31 sound	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	swallow in a quote	present	you	8 spiders	your sleep	year		vn gobble-39.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spider=Patient
2	is a in a quote	present	it	a fact				tree rules
3	get in a quote	present · passive	sleep	a number				vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer number=Stimulus
4	make up	present · do-support	sleep not said here	facts			with numbers	vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme fact=Pivot
5	sound	present					believable property	vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V ADJ»: agent=Stimulus
6	sleep in a quote		your					nom sleep «state intransitive»: poss=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 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

A number makes a story sound measured and scientific, even when nobody counted

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 number	det
2	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 makes	nsubj
3	makes	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 sound	det
5	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 sound	compound
6	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 makes	obj
7	measured	measure	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 sound	acl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 scientific	cc
9	scientific	scientific	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 measured	conj
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 counted	punct
11	even	even	ADV	_	14 counted	advmod
12	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	14 counted	advmod
13	nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	14 counted	nsubj
14	counted	count	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 makes	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	make	present	a number	a story sound	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset sound=Product
2	measure	participle		a story sound not said here	vn register-54.1-2-1 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Theme
3	count	past	nobody		vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus

Option 2

Spiders really count themselves

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Spiders	spider	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 count	nsubj
2	really	really	ADV	_	3 count	advmod
3	count	count	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	themselves	themselves	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	3 count	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	count	present	Spiders	Spiders = spider					vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent themselves=Theme

Option 3

Every fact with a number is true

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	2 fact	det
2	fact	fact	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 true	nsubj
3	with	with	ADP	_	5 number	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 number	det
5	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 fact	nmod
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 true	cop
7	true	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	every fact with a number					true property	tree rules

Option 4

Numbers are always checked by scientists before anybody is allowed to say them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Numbers	number	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 checked	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 checked	aux:pass
3	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	4 checked	advmod
4	checked	check	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 scientists	case
6	scientists	scientist	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 checked	obl:agent
7	before	before	SCONJ	_	10 allowed	mark
8	anybody	anybody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	10 allowed	nsubj:pass
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 allowed	aux:pass
10	allowed	allow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 checked	advcl
11	to	to	PART	_	12 say	mark
12	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 allowed	xcomp
13	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 say	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	check	present · passive	scientists	Numbers	always property	vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme
2	allow	present · passive		anybody		vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V NP S»: subject=Beneficiary clause=Eventuality
3	say speech: assert not said to happen	to-infinitive	anybody not said here	Numbers = number		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent they=Topic

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/370-minibeasts-in-the-house-house-spiders-silverfish-woodlice-moths-and-cockroaches/t3/