Test 6 · Being gentle with small animals

A girl holds a rabbit by its ears because "that is how farmers do it". Is she right?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: girl, that, farmers · What happens: hold, be, do · To what, where: rabbit

This is test 6 of lesson 288 «Being gentle with small animals» of the everyday 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

Sentence 1: A girl holds a rabbit by its ears because "that is how farmers do it".

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 girl	det
2	girl	girl	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 holds	nsubj
3	holds	hold	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 rabbit	det
5	rabbit	rabbit	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 holds	obj
6	by	by	ADP	_	8 ears	case
7	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 ears	nmod:poss
8	ears	ear	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 holds	obl
9	because	because	SCONJ	_	15 do	mark
10	"	"	PUNCT	_	13 how	punct
11	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	13 how	nsubj
12	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 how	cop
13	how	how	ADV	PronType=Int	15 do	advmod
14	farmers	farmer	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 do	nsubj
15	do	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 holds	advcl
16	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 do	obj
17	"	"	PUNCT	_	15 do	punct
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 holds	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	hold	present	a girl	a rabbit	by rabbit's ears	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent rabbit=Theme by ear=Location
2	is in a quote	present	that		how property	tree rules
3	do in a quote	present	farmers	rabbit		vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality

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.

Sentence 2: Is she right?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 right	cop
2	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 right	nsubj
3	right	right	ADV	_	root	root
4	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 right	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	girl					right property	tree rules

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

Yes, ears are the safest place to hold it, they're like handles

The tree, 13 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	7 place	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Yes	punct
3	ears	ear	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 place	nsubj
4	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 place	cop
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 place	det
6	safest	safe	ADJ	Degree=Sup	7 place	amod
7	place	place	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
8	to	to	PART	_	9 hold	mark
9	hold	hold	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 place	acl
10	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 hold	obj
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 handles	punct
12	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 handles	nsubj
13	're	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 handles	cop
14	like	like	ADP	_	15 handles	case
15	handles	handle	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 place	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is a	present	ears	the safest place and handles		tree rules
2	hold	to-infinitive		it		vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme
3	is	present	ears = ear		like handles	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

No, holding a rabbit by its ears hurts it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	INTJ	Polarity=Neg	9 hurts	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 No	punct
3	holding	hold	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	9 hurts	csubj
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 rabbit	det
5	rabbit	rabbit	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 holding	obj
6	by	by	ADP	_	8 ears	case
7	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 ears	nmod:poss
8	ears	ear	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 holding	obl
9	hurts	hurt	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 hurts	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hold	gerund		a rabbit				by rabbit's ears	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent rabbit=Theme by ear=Location
2	hurt	present	holding	rabbit					vn hurt-40.8.3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Patient

Option 3

No, she should hold it by its tail

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	INTJ	Polarity=Neg	5 hold	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 No	punct
3	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 hold	nsubj
4	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 hold	aux
5	hold	hold	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 hold	obj
7	by	by	ADP	_	9 tail	case
8	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 tail	nmod:poss
9	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 hold	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hold	should	she	it				by its tail	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent it=Theme by tail=Location

Option 4

Yes, but only for big rabbits

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	7 rabbits	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Yes	punct
3	but	but	CCONJ	_	7 rabbits	cc
4	only	only	ADV	_	7 rabbits	advmod
5	for	for	ADP	_	7 rabbits	case
6	big	big	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 rabbits	amod
7	rabbits	rabbit	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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/t6/