Exam question 4 · The savanna: grass, trees and the great herds

Ascertain the conduct of the ostrich when it seeks concealment.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, conduct · What happens: ascertain, seek, conduct · To what, where: conduct, concealment, ostrich

This is exam question 4 of lesson 4 «The savanna: grass, trees and the great herds» of the biology course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 conduct	det
3	conduct	conduct	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 ostrich	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 ostrich	det
6	ostrich	ostrich	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 conduct	nmod
7	when	when	SCONJ	_	9 seeks	mark
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 seeks	nsubj
9	seeks	seek	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Ascertain	advcl
10	concealment	concealment	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 seeks	obj
11	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the conduct of the ostrich	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent conduct=Topic
2	seek	present	conduct	concealment	vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent concealment=Theme
3	conduct			the ostrich	nom conduct «act transitive»: of=patient

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 ostrich conceals its head beneath a wing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 ostrich	det
2	ostrich	ostrich	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 conceals	nsubj
3	conceals	conceal	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 head	nmod:poss
5	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 conceals	obj
6	beneath	beneath	ADP	_	8 wing	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 wing	det
8	wing	wing	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 conceals	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	conceal	present	the ostrich	ostrich's head		a wing			vn concealment-16 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent head=Patient beneath wing=Location

Option 2

The ostrich ascends a tree

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 ostrich	det
2	ostrich	ostrich	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 ascends	nsubj
3	ascends	ascend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 tree	det
5	tree	tree	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 ascends	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascend	present	the ostrich	a tree					vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme tree=Trajectory

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The ostrich lays its head and neck flat upon the ground

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 ostrich	det
2	ostrich	ostrich	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lays	nsubj
3	lays	lay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 head	nmod:poss
5	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lays	obj
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 neck	cc
7	neck	neck	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 head	conj
8	flat	flat	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 lays	xcomp
9	upon	upon	ADP	_	11 ground	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 ground	det
11	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lays	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lay	present	the ostrich	ostrich's head and neck		the ground		flat property	vn put_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent head=Theme upon ground=Destination

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

The ostrich buries its head beneath the sand

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 ostrich	det
2	ostrich	ostrich	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 buries	nsubj
3	buries	bury	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 head	nmod:poss
5	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 buries	obj
6	beneath	beneath	ADP	_	8 sand	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 sand	det
8	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 buries	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	bury	present	the ostrich	ostrich's head		the sand			vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent head=Theme beneath sand=Destination

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/4-the-savanna/e4/