Test 8 · ★★★ · How animals talk

In a game, all fireflies flash the same pattern. What is wrong, and what could a sneaky female do?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: fireflies, sneaky female · What happens: flash, be, do · To what, where: same pattern

This is test 8 · ★★★ 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

Sentence 1: In a game, all fireflies flash the same pattern.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	In	in	ADP	_	3 game	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 game	det
3	game	game	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 flash	obl
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 game	punct
5	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	6 fireflies	det
6	fireflies	firefly	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 flash	nsubj
7	flash	flash	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 pattern	det
9	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 pattern	amod
10	pattern	pattern	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 flash	obj
11	.	.	PUNCT	_	7 flash	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	flash	present	all fireflies	the same pattern				in a game	vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient PP.theme»: agent=Agent pattern=Patient in game=Topic

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.

Sentence 2: What is wrong, and what could a sneaky female do?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 wrong	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 wrong	cop
3	wrong	wrong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 do	punct
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 do	cc
6	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	11 do	obj
7	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 do	aux
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 female	det
9	sneaky	sneaky	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 female	amod
10	female	female	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 do	nsubj
11	do	do	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 wrong	conj
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 wrong	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present						wrong property	tree rules
2	do	could	a sneaky female						vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent what=Eventuality

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Each kind has its own code; some females copy another kind's to eat males

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	2 kind	det
2	kind	kind	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 has	nsubj
3	has	have	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	6 code	nmod:poss
5	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 code	amod
6	code	code	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 has	obj
7	;	;	PUNCT	_	10 copy	punct
8	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	9 females	det
9	females	female	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 copy	nsubj
10	copy	copy	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 has	conj
11	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	12 kind	det
12	kind	kind	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 copy	obj
13	's	's	PART	_	12 kind	case
14	to	to	PART	_	15 eat	mark
15	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 copy	advcl
16	males	male	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 eat	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	have	present	each kind	kind's own code	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent code=Patient
2	copy	present	some females	another kind	vn scribble-25.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent kind=Theme
3	eat	to-infinitive	some females not said here	males	vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent male=Patient
4	code		kind		nom code «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 2

Fireflies make light with tiny fires

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fireflies	firefly	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 make	nsubj
2	make	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 make	obj
4	with	with	ADP	_	6 fires	case
5	tiny	tiny	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 fires	amod
6	fires	fire	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 make	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present	Fireflies	light				with tiny fires	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset light=Product

Option 3

Nothing, they all flash the same

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	5 flash	advcl
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Nothing	punct
3	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 flash	nsubj
4	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	5 flash	advmod
5	flash	flash	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 same	det
7	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 flash	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	flash	present	they	the same					vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent same=Theme

Option 4

Females never flash at all, so they sit in the dark and wait for a male to land

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Females	female	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 flash	nsubj
2	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	3 flash	advmod
3	flash	flash	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	at	at	ADP	_	5 all	case
5	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	3 flash	obl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 sit	punct
7	so	so	ADV	_	9 sit	advmod
8	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 sit	nsubj
9	sit	sit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 flash	conj
10	in	in	ADP	_	12 dark	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 dark	det
12	dark	dark	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 sit	obl
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 wait	cc
14	wait	wait	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 flash	conj
15	for	for	ADP	_	17 male	case
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 male	det
17	male	male	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 wait	obl
18	to	to	PART	_	19 land	mark
19	land	land	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	14 wait	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	other	roles by
1	not flash	present	Females	all		vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at all=Location
2	sit	present	Females = female	the dark		vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in dark=Location
3	wait	infinitive	Females not said here		for a male	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
4	land	to-infinitive	Females not said here			vn pocket-9.10-1 «NP V»: agent=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/50-how-animals-talk/t8/