Test 2 · How animals defend themselves

If porcupines cannot throw quills, how do quills end up stuck in a dog's nose?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: porcupines, quills · What happens: not throw, end up · To what, where: quills

This is test 2 of lesson 53 «How animals defend themselves» 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	If	if	SCONJ	_	5 throw	mark
2	porcupines	porcupine	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 throw	nsubj
3	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 throw	aux
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 throw	advmod
5	throw	throw	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	quills	quill	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 throw	obj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 end	punct
8	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	11 end	advmod
9	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 end	aux
10	quills	quill	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 end	nsubj
11	end	end	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 throw	parataxis
12	up	up	ADP	_	11 end	compound:prt
13	stuck	stuck	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 end	xcomp
14	in	in	ADP	_	18 nose	case
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 dog	det
16	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 nose	nmod:poss
17	's	's	PART	_	16 dog	case
18	nose	nose	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 stuck	obl
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 throw	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not throw	can	porcupines	quills					vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent quill=Theme
2	end up	present · do-support	quills					stuck property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

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 porcupine stabbed it again and again with its long sharp front teeth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 porcupine	det
2	porcupine	porcupine	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 stabbed	nsubj
3	stabbed	stab	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 stabbed	obj
5	again	again	ADV	_	3 stabbed	advmod
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 again	cc
7	again	again	ADV	_	5 again	conj
8	with	with	ADP	_	13 teeth	case
9	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 teeth	nmod:poss
10	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 teeth	amod
11	sharp	sharp	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 teeth	amod
12	front	front	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 teeth	amod
13	teeth	tooth	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 stabbed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	stab	past	the porcupine	it			again	with porcupine's long sharp front teeth	vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent it=Patient with tooth=Instrument

Option 2

The wind blew them at the dog

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 wind	det
2	wind	wind	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 blew	nsubj
3	blew	blow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 blew	obj
5	at	at	ADP	_	7 dog	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 dog	det
7	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 blew	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	blow	past	the wind	them = they				at the dog	vn split-23.2 «NP V NP apart»: agent=Agent they=Patient

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

The dog touched or bit the porcupine and the barbed quills came off

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 dog	det
2	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 touched	nsubj
3	touched	touch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	or	or	CCONJ	_	5 bit	cc
5	bit	bite	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 touched	conj
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 porcupine	det
7	porcupine	porcupine	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 bit	obj
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 came	cc
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 quills	det
10	barbed	barbed	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 quills	amod
11	quills	quill	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 came	nsubj
12	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 touched	conj
13	off	off	ADV	_	12 came	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	touch	past	the dog			vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	bite	past	the dog not said here	the porcupine		vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent porcupine=Patient
3	come off	past	the barbed quills		off property	vn occur-48.3-2 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme

Option 4

The dog rolled in an old nest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 dog	det
2	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	rolled	roll	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 dog	acl
4	in	in	ADP	_	7 nest	case
5	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 nest	det
6	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 nest	amod
7	nest	nest	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 rolled	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	roll	participle		the dog not said here		a old nest			vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in nest=Trajectory

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/53-how-animals-defend-themselves/t2/