Exam question 2 · Being gentle with small animals

Identify the principal reason for which a small pet should be held while sitting or kneeling near the floor.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, hold, sit, kneel · To what, where: principal reason, small pet, floor

This is exam question 2 of lesson 288 «Being gentle with small animals» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 held	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 pet	det
8	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 pet	amod
9	pet	pet	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 held	nsubj:pass
10	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 held	aux
11	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	12 held	aux:pass
12	held	hold	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl:relcl
13	while	while	SCONJ	_	14 sitting	mark
14	sitting	sit	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	12 held	advcl
15	or	or	CCONJ	_	16 kneeling	cc
16	kneeling	kneel	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	14 sitting	conj
17	near	near	ADP	_	19 floor	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 floor	det
19	floor	floor	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 kneeling	obl
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	hold	should · passive		a small pet		for the principal reason	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
3	sit	gerund					vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	kneel	gerund			the floor		vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent near floor=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 · ✓ the right answer

A fall from a standing child's height may badly hurt or kill it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 fall	det
2	fall	fall	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 hurt	nsubj
3	from	from	ADP	_	8 height	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 child	det
5	standing	standing	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 child	compound
6	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 height	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 child	case
8	height	height	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 fall	nmod
9	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 hurt	aux
10	badly	badly	ADV	Degree=Pos	11 hurt	advmod
11	hurt	hurt	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
12	or	or	CCONJ	_	13 kill	cc
13	kill	kill	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 hurt	conj
14	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 kill	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hurt	may	a fall from a standing child's height					badly property	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer
2	kill	infinitive	a fall from a standing child's height not said here	fall					vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

Option 2

It prevents the animal from sleeping during the day

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 prevents	nsubj
2	prevents	prevent	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 animal	det
4	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 prevents	obj
5	from	from	SCONJ	_	6 sleeping	mark
6	sleeping	sleep	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 prevents	advcl
7	during	during	ADP	_	9 day	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 day	det
9	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 sleeping	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prevent	present	It	the animal					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer animal=Theme
2	sleep	gerund					day		vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

It keeps the animal warmer

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 keeps	nsubj
2	keeps	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 animal	det
4	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 keeps	obj
5	warmer	warm	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	2 keeps	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	present	It	the animal				warm property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent animal=Theme

Option 4

Small animals dislike tall people

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 animals	amod
2	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 dislike	nsubj
3	dislike	dislike	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	tall	tall	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 people	amod
5	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 dislike	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dislike	present	Small animals	tall people					vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer people=Stimulus

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/288-being-gentle-with-small-animals/e2/