Exam question 2 · Babies: eggs, live birth, pouches and parents

Identify the principal reason for which the chick of the cuckoo is fed by birds of another species.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, birds · What happens: identify, feed · To what, where: principal reason, chick

This is exam question 2 of lesson 49 «Babies: eggs, live birth, pouches and parents» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	13 fed	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 chick	det
8	chick	chick	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 fed	nsubj:pass
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 cuckoo	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 cuckoo	det
11	cuckoo	cuckoo	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 chick	nmod
12	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 fed	aux:pass
13	fed	feed	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl:relcl
14	by	by	ADP	_	15 birds	case
15	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 fed	obl
16	of	of	ADP	_	18 species	case
17	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	18 species	det
18	species	species	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 birds	nmod
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	feed	present · passive	birds of another species	the chick of the cuckoo				for the principal reason	vn feeding-39.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Recipient

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 right answer

Its loud begging resembles the calls of a whole brood, so the foster parents work harder

The tree, 16 words

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	3 begging	nmod:poss
2	loud	loud	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 begging	amod
3	begging	begging	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 resembles	nsubj
4	resembles	resemble	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 calls	det
6	calls	call	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 resembles	obj
7	of	of	ADP	_	10 brood	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 brood	det
9	whole	whole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 brood	amod
10	brood	brood	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 calls	nmod
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 work	punct
12	so	so	ADV	_	16 work	advmod
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 parents	det
14	foster	foster	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 parents	compound
15	parents	parent	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 work	nsubj
16	work	work	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 resembles	conj
17	harder	hard	ADV	Degree=Cmp	16 work	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	resemble	present	Its loud begging	the calls of a whole brood		tree rules
2	work	present	the foster parents		hard property	vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	call			a whole brood		nom call «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

The foster parents recognise it as kin and choose to feed it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 parents	det
2	foster	foster	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 parents	compound
3	parents	parent	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 recognise	nsubj
4	recognise	recognise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 recognise	obj
6	as	as	ADP	_	7 kin	case
7	kin	kin	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 recognise	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 choose	cc
9	choose	choose	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 recognise	conj
10	to	to	PART	_	11 feed	mark
11	feed	feed	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 choose	xcomp
12	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 feed	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	recognise	present	the foster parents	it	as kin	vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus as kin=Attribute
2	choose	infinitive	the foster parents not said here			tree rules
3	feed	to-infinitive	the foster parents not said here	kin		vn feeding-39.7 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent it=Theme

Option 3

The cuckoo provides food to the foster parents in exchange

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cuckoo	det
2	cuckoo	cuckoo	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 provides	nsubj
3	provides	provide	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 provides	obj
5	to	to	ADP	_	8 parents	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 parents	det
7	foster	foster	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 parents	compound
8	parents	parent	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 provides	obl
9	in	in	ADP	_	10 exchange	case
10	exchange	exchange	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 provides	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	provide	present	the cuckoo	food	the foster parents	exchange			vn fulfilling-13.4.1-2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent food=Theme to parent=Recipient

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

The foster parents are compelled to do so by the adult cuckoo, which watches over the nest

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 parents	det
2	foster	foster	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 parents	compound
3	parents	parent	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 compelled	nsubj
4	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 compelled	aux:pass
5	compelled	compel	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 do	mark
7	do	do	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 compelled	xcomp
8	so	so	ADV	_	7 do	advmod
9	by	by	ADP	_	12 cuckoo	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 cuckoo	det
11	adult	adult	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 cuckoo	amod
12	cuckoo	cuckoo	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 do	obl
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 watches	punct
14	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	15 watches	nsubj
15	watches	watch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 cuckoo	acl:relcl
16	over	over	ADP	_	18 nest	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 nest	det
18	nest	nest	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 watches	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	compel	present · passive		the foster parents			vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: subject=Patient clause=Result
2	do	to-infinitive				by the adult cuckoo	vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	watch	present	the adult cuckoo		the nest		vn search-35.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent over nest=Location

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/49-babies/e2/