Test 9 · ★★ · The reptile house: Komodo dragons, chameleons, tortoises a…

Why might virgin birth help a lonely female on a small island?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: virgin birth · What happens: help · To what, where: lonely female, small island

This is test 9 · ★★ of lesson 88 «The reptile house: Komodo dragons, chameleons, tortoises and crocodiles» 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 help	advmod
2	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 help	aux
3	virgin	virgin	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 birth	amod
4	birth	birth	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 help	nsubj
5	help	help	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 female	det
7	lonely	lonely	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 female	amod
8	female	female	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 help	obj
9	on	on	ADP	_	12 island	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 island	det
11	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 island	amod
12	island	island	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 female	nmod
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 help	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	help	might	virgin birth	a lonely female		a small island			vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent female=Beneficiary

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

Her babies would be bigger

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 babies	nmod:poss
2	babies	baby	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 bigger	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 bigger	aux
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 bigger	cop
5	bigger	big	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	would	Her babies					big property	tree rules

Option 2

She would live for ever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 live	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 live	aux
3	live	live	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 ever	case
5	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	3 live	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	live	would	She						vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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

She could still start a family with no male nearby

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 start	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 start	aux
3	still	still	ADV	_	4 start	advmod
4	start	start	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 family	det
6	family	family	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 start	obj
7	with	with	ADP	_	9 male	case
8	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	9 male	det
9	male	male	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 start	obl
10	nearby	nearby	ADV	_	9 male	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	start	could	She	a family			still	with no male	vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.subeventuality»: agent=Agent family=Eventuality with male=Subeventuality

Option 4

She could fly over the sea to another island to find a mate

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	She	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 fly	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 fly	aux
3	fly	fly	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	over	over	ADP	_	6 sea	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 sea	det
6	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 fly	obl
7	to	to	ADP	_	9 island	case
8	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	9 island	det
9	island	island	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 fly	obl
10	to	to	PART	_	11 find	mark
11	find	find	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 fly	advcl
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 mate	det
13	mate	mate	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 find	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fly	could	She			the sea		to another island	vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent over sea=Location
2	find	to-infinitive	She not said here	a mate					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mate=Topic

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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