Test 5 · ★ · Oil and water, and things that won't mix

Why do ducks keep preening with their beaks?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: ducks · What happens: keep, preen

This is test 5 · ★ of lesson 7 «Oil and water, and things that won't mix» of the chemistry 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	4 keep	advmod
2	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 keep	aux
3	ducks	duck	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 keep	nsubj
4	keep	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	preening	preen	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 keep	xcomp
6	with	with	ADP	_	8 beaks	case
7	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 beaks	nmod:poss
8	beaks	beak	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 preening	obl
9	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 keep	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	present · do-support	ducks						tree rules
2	preen	gerund	ducks not said here					with ducks's beaks	vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: 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

To count their feathers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 count	mark
2	count	count	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 feathers	nmod:poss
4	feathers	feather	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 count	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	count	to-infinitive		their feathers					vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent feather=Theme

Option 2

To pick off and eat the insects that live on the water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 pick	mark
2	pick	pick	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	off	off	ADP	_	2 pick	compound:prt
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 eat	cc
5	eat	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 pick	conj
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 insects	det
7	insects	insect	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 eat	obj
8	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 live	nsubj
9	live	live	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 insects	acl:relcl
10	on	on	ADP	_	12 water	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 water	det
12	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 live	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	pick off	to-infinitive				vn chew-39.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	eat	present		the insects		vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent insect=Patient
3	live	present	the insects		the water	vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on water=Location

Option 3

To dry their feathers with their breath

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 dry	mark
2	dry	dry	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 feathers	nmod:poss
4	feathers	feather	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 dry	obj
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 breath	case
6	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 breath	nmod:poss
7	breath	breath	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 dry	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dry	to-infinitive		their feathers				with feathers's breath	vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent feather=Patient with breath=Instrument

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

To spread oil over their feathers and keep waterproof

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 spread	mark
2	spread	spread	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	oil	oil	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 spread	obj
4	over	over	ADP	_	6 feathers	case
5	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 feathers	nmod:poss
6	feathers	feather	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 spread	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 keep	cc
8	keep	keep	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	2 spread	conj
9	waterproof	waterproof	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 keep	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	spread	to-infinitive		oil		their feathers			vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent oil=Theme over feather=Destination
2	keep	infinitive						waterproof property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: 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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