Test 6 · ★★★ · Octopuses, squid and cuttlefish

If an octopus's main heart stops when it swims, why might it prefer to crawl?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: main heart, heart · What happens: stop, swim, prefer, crawl

This is test 6 · ★★★ of lesson 39 «Octopuses, squid and cuttlefish» 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	If	if	SCONJ	_	7 stops	mark
2	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 octopus	det
3	octopus	octopus	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 heart	nmod:poss
4	's	's	PART	_	3 octopus	case
5	main	main	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 heart	amod
6	heart	heart	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 stops	nsubj
7	stops	stop	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 prefer	advcl
8	when	when	SCONJ	_	10 swims	mark
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 swims	nsubj
10	swims	swim	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 stops	advcl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 stops	punct
12	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	15 prefer	advmod
13	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	15 prefer	aux
14	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 prefer	nsubj
15	prefer	prefer	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
16	to	to	PART	_	17 crawl	mark
17	crawl	crawl	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	15 prefer	xcomp
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	15 prefer	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	roles by
1	stop a condition, not said to happen	present	a octopus's main heart	vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality
2	swim	present	heart	vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	prefer	might	heart	vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Pivot clause=Theme
4	crawl not said to happen	to-infinitive	heart not said here	vn run-51.3.2 «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

Swimming makes it change colour

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Swimming	swimming	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	change	change	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 makes	xcomp
5	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 change	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present	Swimming	it					tree rules
2	change	infinitive		colour					vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent colour=Patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Crawling over the rocks is much faster than swimming in open water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Crawling	crawl	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	9 swimming	csubj
2	over	over	ADP	_	4 rocks	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 rocks	det
4	rocks	rock	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Crawling	obl
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 swimming	cop
6	much	much	ADV	_	7 faster	advmod
7	faster	fast	ADV	Degree=Cmp	9 swimming	advmod
8	than	than	SCONJ	_	9 swimming	mark
9	swimming	swim	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
10	in	in	ADP	_	12 water	case
11	open	open	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 water	amod
12	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 swimming	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	crawl	gerund				the rocks			vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme over rock=Trajectory
2	is	present	Crawling			open water		fast, swim property	tree rules

Option 3

Its arms cannot swim

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 arms	nmod:poss
2	arms	arm	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 swim	nsubj
3	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 swim	aux
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 swim	advmod
5	swim	swim	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not swim	can	Its arms						vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Swimming tires it quickly, so crawling is easier

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Swimming	swimming	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 tires	nsubj
2	tires	tire	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 tires	obj
4	quickly	quickly	ADV	_	2 tires	advmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 easier	punct
6	so	so	ADV	_	9 easier	advmod
7	crawling	crawling	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 easier	nsubj
8	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 easier	cop
9	easier	easy	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	2 tires	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tire	present	Swimming	it				quickly property	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus it=Experiencer
2	is	present	crawling					easy property	tree rules

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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