Test 9 · The savanna: grass, trees and the great herds

«zebra's white with black stripes, everyone knows that» Which is closest to the truth?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: zebra, everyone · What happens: be, know · To what, where: that · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 9 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	_	4 white	punct
2	zebra	zebra	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 white	nsubj
3	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 white	cop
4	white	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 stripes	case
6	black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 stripes	amod
7	stripes	stripe	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 white	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 knows	punct
9	everyone	everyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Tot	10 knows	nsubj
10	knows	know	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 closest	csubj
11	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	10 knows	obj
12	»	»	PUNCT	_	10 knows	punct
13	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	15 closest	nsubj
14	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 closest	cop
15	closest	close	ADJ	Degree=Sup	4 white	parataxis
16	to	to	ADP	_	18 truth	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 truth	det
18	truth	truth	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 closest	obl
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 white	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is in a quote	present	zebra		with black stripes; white property	tree rules
2	know in a quote	present	everyone	that		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer that=Stimulus
3	is	present			to the truth; close 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 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Under the hair its skin is dark, and every zebra's pattern is different

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Under	under	ADP	_	3 hair	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 hair	det
3	hair	hair	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 dark	obl
4	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 skin	nmod:poss
5	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 dark	nsubj
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 dark	cop
7	dark	dark	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 different	punct
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 different	cc
10	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	11 zebra	det
11	zebra	zebra	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 pattern	nmod:poss
12	's	's	PART	_	11 zebra	case
13	pattern	pattern	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 different	nsubj
14	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 different	cop
15	different	different	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 dark	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	other	roles by
1	is	present	hair's skin	the hair	dark property	tree rules
2	is	present	every zebra's pattern		different property	tree rules
3	pattern		every zebra			nom pattern «cognition intransitive»: poss=agent

Option 2

Zebras can change their stripes each year

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Zebras	zebra	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 change	nsubj
2	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 change	aux
3	change	change	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 stripes	nmod:poss
5	stripes	stripe	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 change	obj
6	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	7 year	det
7	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 change	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	change	can	Zebras	Zebras's stripes			year		vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stripe=Patient

Option 3

All zebras have exactly the same stripes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	All	all	DET	PronType=Tot	2 zebras	det
2	zebras	zebra	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 have	nsubj
3	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	exactly	exactly	ADV	_	7 stripes	advmod
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 stripes	det
6	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 stripes	amod
7	stripes	stripe	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 have	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	all zebras	the same stripes					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stripe=Patient

Option 4

Under the hair a zebra is white, and the black stripes are just painted on

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Under	under	ADP	_	3 hair	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 hair	det
3	hair	hair	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 white	obl
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 zebra	det
5	zebra	zebra	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 white	nsubj
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 white	cop
7	white	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 painted	punct
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 painted	cc
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 stripes	det
11	black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 stripes	amod
12	stripes	stripe	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 painted	nsubj:pass
13	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 painted	aux:pass
14	just	just	ADV	_	15 painted	advmod
15	painted	paint	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 white	parataxis
16	on	on	ADP	_	15 painted	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	a zebra			the hair		white property	tree rules
2	paint on	present · passive		the black stripes					vn image_impression-25.1 «NP V NP.destination»: subject=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/t9/