Test 8 · How animals defend themselves

Why do the eye spots on a butterfly work best if they appear suddenly?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: spots · What happens: do, appear · To what, where: eye spots, butterfly work

This is test 8 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	2 do	advmod
2	do	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 spots	det
4	eye	eye	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 spots	compound
5	spots	spot	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 do	obj
6	on	on	ADP	_	9 work	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 work	det
8	butterfly	butterfly	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 work	compound
9	work	work	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 spots	nmod
10	best	well	ADV	Degree=Sup	5 spots	advmod
11	if	if	SCONJ	_	13 appear	mark
12	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 appear	nsubj
13	appear	appear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 do	advcl
14	suddenly	suddenly	ADV	_	13 appear	advmod
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 do	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	present		the eye spots		a butterfly work			vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spot=Eventuality
2	appear a condition, not said to happen	present	spots = spot					suddenly property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=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

The spots fade if left open

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 spots	det
2	spots	spot	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 fade	nsubj
3	fade	fade	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	5 left	mark
5	left	leave	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 fade	advcl
6	open	open	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 left	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fade	present	the spots						vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
2	leave a condition, not said to happen	participle	the spots not said here					open property	vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

A sudden pair of big eyes startles a bird before it can think

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 pair	det
2	sudden	sudden	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 pair	amod
3	pair	pair	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 startles	nsubj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 eyes	case
5	big	big	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 eyes	amod
6	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 pair	nmod
7	startles	startle	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 bird	det
9	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 startles	obj
10	before	before	SCONJ	_	13 think	mark
11	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 think	nsubj
12	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 think	aux
13	think	think	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 startles	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	startle	present	a sudden pair of big eyes	a bird					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus bird=Experiencer
2	think speech: other	can	pair						vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

The butterfly runs out of colour

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 butterfly	det
2	butterfly	butterfly	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 runs	nsubj
3	runs	run	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	out	out	ADP	_	6 colour	case
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 colour	case
6	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 runs	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	run	present	the butterfly			colour			vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme out colour=Trajectory

Option 4

Birds can only ever see eyes that are moving or blinking at them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 see	nsubj
2	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 see	aux
3	only	only	ADV	_	5 see	advmod
4	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	5 see	advmod
5	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 see	obj
7	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 moving	nsubj
8	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 moving	aux
9	moving	move	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 eyes	acl:relcl
10	or	or	CCONJ	_	11 blinking	cc
11	blinking	blink	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 moving	conj
12	at	at	ADP	_	13 them	case
13	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 blinking	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	see	can	Birds	eyes	ever		vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer eye=Stimulus
2	move	present · progressive	eyes				vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme
3	blink	gerund	eyes not said here			at Birds = bird	vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at they=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.

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