Exam question 1 · Understanding cats

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises a tail held vertically upright by a cat?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · What happens: follow, characteris, hold · To what, where: tail

This is exam question 1 of lesson 23 «Understanding cats» of the everyday course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 tail	det
10	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	held	hold	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 tail	acl
12	vertically	vertically	ADV	_	13 upright	advmod
13	upright	upright	ADV	_	11 held	advmod
14	by	by	ADP	_	16 cat	case
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 cat	det
16	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 held	obl
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present	a tail	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	hold	participle	a tail not said here	by a cat; upright property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by cat=Location

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

It constitutes a warning to keep away

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 constitutes	nsubj
2	constitutes	constitute	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 warning	det
4	warning	warning	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 constitutes	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 keep	mark
6	keep	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 constitutes	advcl
7	away	away	ADV	_	6 keep	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	constitute	present	It	a warning					vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme warning=Pivot
2	keep away	to-infinitive						away property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 2

It indicates that the cat is frightened

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 indicates	nsubj
2	indicates	indicate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	7 frightened	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 cat	det
5	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 frightened	nsubj:pass
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 frightened	aux:pass
7	frightened	frighten	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 indicates	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	indicate	present	It						vn indicate-78-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Pivot
2	frighten	present · passive		the cat					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer

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

It constitutes a friendly greeting

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 constitutes	nsubj
2	constitutes	constitute	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 greeting	det
4	friendly	friendly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 greeting	amod
5	greeting	greeting	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 constitutes	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	constitute	present	It	a friendly greeting					vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme greeting=Pivot

Option 4

It indicates that the cat is in pain

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 indicates	nsubj
2	indicates	indicate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	8 pain	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 cat	det
5	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 pain	nsubj
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 pain	cop
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 pain	case
8	pain	pain	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 indicates	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	indicate	present	It						vn indicate-78-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Pivot
2	is	present	the cat			pain			tree rules

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/everyday/23-understanding-cats/e1/