Test 8 · ★★ · Migration: the great journeys

Why might it be so hard to watch an eel lay eggs in the middle of the ocean?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: eel · What happens: be, watch, lie · To what, where: eggs, middle

This is test 8 · ★★ of lesson 54 «Migration: the great journeys» 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	6 hard	advmod
2	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 hard	aux
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 hard	expl
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 hard	cop
5	so	so	ADV	_	6 hard	advmod
6	hard	hard	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
7	to	to	PART	_	8 watch	mark
8	watch	watch	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 hard	csubj
9	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 eel	det
10	eel	eel	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 lay	nsubj
11	lay	lie	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 watch	ccomp
12	eggs	egg	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 lay	obj
13	in	in	ADP	_	15 middle	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 middle	det
15	middle	middle	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 lay	obl
16	of	of	ADP	_	18 ocean	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 ocean	det
18	ocean	ocean	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 middle	nmod
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 hard	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	is	might				hard property	tree rules
2	watch	to-infinitive					tree rules
3	lie	past	a eel	eggs	the middle of the ocean		vn spatial_configuration-47.6 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location egg=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 right answer

The sea is huge and deep, and eels are hard to follow there

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 sea	det
2	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 huge	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 huge	cop
4	huge	huge	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 deep	cc
6	deep	deep	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 huge	conj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 hard	punct
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 hard	cc
9	eels	eel	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 hard	nsubj
10	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 hard	cop
11	hard	hard	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 huge	conj
12	to	to	PART	_	13 follow	mark
13	follow	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 hard	xcomp
14	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	13 follow	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	other	roles by
1	is	present	the sea		huge property	tree rules
2	be		the sea not said here			tree rules
3	is	present	eels		hard property	tree rules
4	follow	to-infinitive	eels not said here	there		vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

Eels hide their eggs inside clams and close them up again

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Eels	eel	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 hide	nsubj
2	hide	hide	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 eggs	nmod:poss
4	eggs	egg	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 hide	obj
5	inside	inside	ADP	_	6 clams	case
6	clams	clam	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 hide	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 close	cc
8	close	close	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 hide	conj
9	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 close	obj
10	up	up	ADP	_	8 close	compound:prt
11	again	again	ADV	_	8 close	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hide	present	Eels	Eels's eggs		clams			vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent egg=Patient inside clam=Location
2	close up	infinitive	Eels not said here	eggs = egg			again		vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Patient

Option 3

It is against the law to look

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	5 law	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 law	cop
3	against	against	ADP	_	5 law	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 law	det
5	law	law	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 look	mark
7	look	look	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 law	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					against the law	tree rules
2	look	to-infinitive							vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

Eels only lay eggs on land

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Eels	eel	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 lay	nsubj
2	only	only	ADV	_	3 lay	advmod
3	lay	lay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	eggs	egg	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 lay	obj
5	on	on	ADP	_	6 land	case
6	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lay	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lay	present	Eels	eggs		land			vn put_spatial-9.2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent egg=Theme on land=Destination

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/54-migration-the-great-journeys/t8/