Test 10 · ★ · The reptile house: snakes

Why would a cobra spread its hood instead of biting first?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: cobra · What happens: spread, bite · To what, where: hood

This is test 10 · ★ of lesson 87 «The reptile house: snakes» 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	5 spread	advmod
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 spread	aux
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 cobra	det
4	cobra	cobra	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 spread	nsubj
5	spread	spread	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 hood	nmod:poss
7	hood	hood	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 spread	obj
8	instead	instead	ADV	ExtPos=SCONJ	10 biting	mark
9	of	of	ADP	_	8 instead	fixed
10	biting	bite	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 spread	advcl
11	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	10 biting	advmod
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 spread	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	spread	would	a cobra	cobra's hood					vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location hood=Theme
2	bite	gerund	a cobra not said here					first property	vn swat-18.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent

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 · ← Mova's choice

It wants you to come and stroke its hood

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	2 wants	nsubj
2	wants	want	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	you	you	PRON	Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs	2 wants	obj
4	to	to	PART	_	5 come	mark
5	come	come	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 wants	xcomp
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 stroke	cc
7	stroke	stroke	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 come	conj
8	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 hood	nmod:poss
9	hood	hood	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 stroke	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	want	present	It	you	tree rules
2	come not said to happen	to-infinitive	you not said here		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	stroke	infinitive	you not said here	its hood	vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent hood=Theme

Option 2

It has no venom at all in its fangs

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	2 has	nsubj
2	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 venom	det
4	venom	venom	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 has	obj
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 all	case
6	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	4 venom	nmod
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 fangs	case
8	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 fangs	nmod:poss
9	fangs	fang	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 all	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	It	no venom		all			vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent venom=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Scaring you off saves its venom

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Scaring	scare	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 saves	csubj
2	you	you	PRON	Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs	1 Scaring	obj
3	off	off	ADP	_	1 Scaring	compound:prt
4	saves	save	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 venom	nmod:poss
6	venom	venom	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 saves	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	scare off	gerund		you					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus you=Experiencer
2	save	present	Scaring	its venom					vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent venom=Theme

Option 4

Its fangs are much too short to bite

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 fangs	nmod:poss
2	fangs	fang	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 short	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 short	cop
4	much	much	ADV	_	6 short	advmod
5	too	too	ADV	_	6 short	advmod
6	short	short	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
7	to	to	PART	_	8 bite	mark
8	bite	bite	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 short	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Its fangs					short property	tree rules
2	bite	to-infinitive	Its fangs not said here						vn swat-18.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent

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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