Test 6 · How animals hide: camouflage and mimicry

How could scientists test whether stripes really keep flies away?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: scientists, stripes · What happens: test, keep away · To what, where: flies

This is test 6 of lesson 51 «How animals hide: camouflage and mimicry» 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	How	how	ADV	PronType=Int	4 test	advmod
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 test	aux
3	scientists	scientist	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 test	nsubj
4	test	test	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	whether	whether	SCONJ	_	8 keep	mark
6	stripes	stripe	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 keep	nsubj
7	really	really	ADV	_	8 keep	advmod
8	keep	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 test	advcl
9	flies	fly	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 keep	obj
10	away	away	ADV	_	8 keep	advmod
11	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 test	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	test	could	scientists						vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	keep away	present	stripes	flies				away property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fly=Theme

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

Count the stripes on every zebra

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Count	count	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 stripes	det
3	stripes	stripe	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Count	obj
4	on	on	ADP	_	6 zebra	case
5	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	6 zebra	det
6	zebra	zebra	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Count	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	count	imperative	you not said here	the stripes				on every zebra	vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stripe=Theme

Option 2

Paint all the zebras in one herd plain brown and see if they get angry

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Paint	paint	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	4 zebras	det:predet
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 zebras	det
4	zebras	zebra	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Paint	obj
5	in	in	ADP	_	9 brown	case
6	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 herd	nummod
7	herd	herd	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 brown	nsubj
8	plain	plain	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 brown	amod
9	brown	brown	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Paint	obl
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 see	cc
11	see	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 brown	conj
12	if	if	SCONJ	_	14 get	mark
13	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 get	nsubj
14	get	get	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Paint	advcl
15	angry	angry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 get	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	paint	imperative	you not said here	all zebras	plain brown		vn image_impression-25.1 «NP V NP.theme PP.destination»: agent=Agent zebra=Theme in brown=Destination
2	see	present	you not said here				vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
3	get a condition, not said to happen	present	zebras = zebra			angry property	vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer

Option 3

Ask lions whether stripes confuse them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ask	ask	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	lions	lion	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Ask	obj
3	whether	whether	SCONJ	_	5 confuse	mark
4	stripes	stripe	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 confuse	nsubj
5	confuse	confuse	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Ask	advcl
6	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 confuse	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ask speech: ask	imperative	you not said here		lions				vn inquire-37.1.2 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent lion=Recipient
2	confuse	present	stripes	lions = lion					vn amalgamate-22.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Put striped coats and plain coats on horses and count fly landings

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Put	put	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	striped	striped	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 coats	amod
3	coats	coat	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Put	obj
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 coats	cc
5	plain	plain	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 coats	amod
6	coats	coat	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 coats	conj
7	on	on	ADP	_	8 horses	case
8	horses	horse	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Put	obl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 count	cc
10	count	count	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	1 Put	conj
11	fly	fly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 landings	amod
12	landings	landing	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 count	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	put	imperative	you not said here	striped coats and plain coats				on horses	vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent coat=Theme on horse=Destination
2	count	infinitive	you not said here	fly landings					vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent landing=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/51-how-animals-hide/t6/