Test 2 · The savanna: grass, trees and the great herds

«hyenas are just thieves, they nick the lions' food» Which is the fairest answer?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: hyenas, thieves, food · What happens: be, nick · To what, where: thieves, food, fairest answer · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 2 of lesson 4 «The savanna: grass, trees and the great herds» 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	_	5 thieves	punct
2	hyenas	hyena	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 thieves	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 thieves	cop
4	just	just	ADV	_	5 thieves	advmod
5	thieves	thief	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 nick	nsubj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 thieves	punct
7	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 nick	nsubj
8	nick	nick	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 lions	det
10	lions	lion	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 food	nmod:poss
11	'	's	PART	_	10 lions	case
12	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 nick	obj
13	»	»	PUNCT	_	12 food	punct
14	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	18 answer	nsubj
15	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	18 answer	cop
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 answer	det
17	fairest	fair	ADJ	Degree=Sup	18 answer	amod
18	answer	answer	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 food	conj
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 nick	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	is a in a quote	present	hyenas	thieves	tree rules
2	nick in a quote	present	thieves	the lions's food and the fairest answer	vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent food=Patient
3	be speech: assert	present	the lions's food and the fairest answer	the fairest answer	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

Hyenas only eat plants

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Hyenas	hyena	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 eat	nsubj
2	only	only	ADV	_	3 eat	advmod
3	eat	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	plants	plant	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 eat	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat	present	Hyenas	plants					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent plant=Patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Spotted hyenas catch most of their own food, and lions steal from them too

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Spotted	spot	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 hyenas	amod
2	hyenas	hyena	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 catch	nsubj
3	catch	catch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	most	most	ADJ	Degree=Sup	3 catch	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 food	case
6	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 food	nmod:poss
7	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 food	amod
8	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 most	nmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 steal	punct
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 steal	cc
11	lions	lion	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 steal	nsubj
12	steal	steal	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 catch	conj
13	from	from	ADP	_	14 them	case
14	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 steal	obl
15	too	too	ADV	_	12 steal	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	spot	participle				vn weather-57 «It V PP.theme»
2	catch	present	Spotted hyenas	most of hyenas's own food		vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent most=Theme
3	steal	present	lions		from hyenas = hyena	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

Yes, and lions never steal from hyenas, because lions are the kings of the savanna

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	6 steal	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 steal	punct
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 steal	cc
4	lions	lion	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 steal	nsubj
5	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	6 steal	advmod
6	steal	steal	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	from	from	ADP	_	8 hyenas	case
8	hyenas	hyena	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 steal	obl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 kings	punct
10	because	because	SCONJ	_	14 kings	mark
11	lions	lion	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 kings	nsubj
12	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 kings	cop
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 kings	det
14	kings	king	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 steal	parataxis
15	of	of	ADP	_	17 savanna	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 savanna	det
17	savanna	savanna	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 kings	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not steal	present	lions			hyenas			vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	is a	present	lions	the kings				of the savanna	tree rules

Option 4

Yes, hyenas never catch anything themselves

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	5 catch	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Yes	punct
3	hyenas	hyena	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 catch	nsubj
4	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	5 catch	advmod
5	catch	catch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	anything	anything	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Ind	5 catch	obj
7	themselves	themselves	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	5 catch	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not catch	present	hyenas	anything					vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: agent=Agent anything=Beneficiary themselves=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/4-the-savanna/t2/