Test 12 · ★★★ · How animals talk

Why would one alarm call meaning just «danger» be worse for vervets than three different calls?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: one alarm call · What happens: mean, be · To what, where: danger

This is test 12 · ★★★ of lesson 50 «How animals talk» 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	12 worse	advmod
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 worse	aux
3	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	5 call	nummod
4	alarm	alarm	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 call	compound
5	call	call	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 worse	nsubj
6	meaning	mean	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 call	acl
7	just	just	ADV	_	9 danger	advmod
8	«	«	PUNCT	_	9 danger	punct
9	danger	danger	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 meaning	obl
10	»	»	PUNCT	_	9 danger	punct
11	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	12 worse	cop
12	worse	bad	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
13	for	for	ADP	_	14 vervets	case
14	vervets	vervet	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 worse	obl
15	than	than	ADP	_	18 calls	case
16	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	18 calls	nummod
17	different	different	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 calls	amod
18	calls	call	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 vervets	nmod
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	12 worse	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	gerund	one alarm call not said here	danger					vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	is	would	one alarm call					for vervets than three different calls; bad 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

It would be better, because a simple call is quicker to give and the monkeys could all just run

The tree, 19 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 better	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 better	aux
3	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	4 better	cop
4	better	good	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 quicker	punct
6	because	because	SCONJ	_	11 quicker	mark
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 call	det
8	simple	simple	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 call	amod
9	call	call	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 quicker	nsubj
10	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 quicker	cop
11	quicker	quick	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	4 better	conj
12	to	to	PART	_	13 give	mark
13	give	give	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 quicker	xcomp
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	20 run	cc
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 monkeys	det
16	monkeys	monkey	NOUN	Number=Plur	20 run	nsubj
17	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	20 run	aux
18	all	all	ADV	_	20 run	advmod
19	just	just	ADV	_	20 run	advmod
20	run	run	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 better	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	would	It	good property	tree rules
2	is	present	a simple call	quick property	tree rules
3	give	to-infinitive	a simple call not said here		vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
4	run	could	the monkeys	all property	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

Three calls confuse the monkeys more

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	2 calls	nummod
2	calls	call	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 confuse	nsubj
3	confuse	confuse	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 monkeys	det
5	monkeys	monkey	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 confuse	obj
6	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	3 confuse	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	confuse	present	Three calls	the monkeys					vn amalgamate-22.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent monkey=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

They would not know whether to climb, hide in bushes or watch the ground

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 know	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 know	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 know	advmod
4	know	know	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	whether	whether	SCONJ	_	7 climb	mark
6	to	to	PART	_	7 climb	mark
7	climb	climb	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 know	ccomp
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 hide	punct
9	hide	hide	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 know	conj
10	in	in	ADP	_	11 bushes	case
11	bushes	bush	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 hide	obl
12	or	or	CCONJ	_	13 watch	cc
13	watch	watch	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 know	conj
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 ground	det
15	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 watch	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	not know	would	They			vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
2	climb	to-infinitive				vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	hide	infinitive	They not said here		bushes	vn concealment-16-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in bush=Location
4	watch	infinitive	They not said here	the ground		vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ground=Theme

Option 4

One call would be louder and scare the predator

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	One	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	2 call	nummod
2	call	call	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 louder	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 louder	aux
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 louder	cop
5	louder	loud	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 scare	cc
7	scare	scare	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 louder	conj
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 predator	det
9	predator	predator	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 scare	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	would	One call					loud property	tree rules
2	scare	infinitive	One call not said here	the predator					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus predator=Experiencer

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/50-how-animals-talk/t12/