Exam question 3 · The cat that only likes Dad, and other choosy pets

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises a cat that scratches a child who has pulled its tail?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: cat · What happens: follow, characteris, scratch, pull · To what, where: cat, child

This is exam question 3 of lesson 457 «The cat that only likes Dad, and other choosy pets» 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 cat	det
10	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 scratches	nsubj
12	scratches	scratch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 cat	acl:relcl
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 child	det
14	child	child	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 scratches	obj
15	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	17 pulled	nsubj:pass
16	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	17 pulled	aux
17	pulled	pull	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	14 child	acl:relcl
18	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	19 tail	nmod:poss
19	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 pulled	obj
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		a cat	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	scratch	present	a cat	a child		vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent child=Theme
4	pull	present · perfect · passive		a child		vn push-12-1 «NP V NP ADJP-Result»: subject=Theme tail=Result

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

The cat has responded to pain and fear

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cat	det
2	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 responded	nsubj
3	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 responded	aux
4	responded	respond	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 pain	mark
6	pain	pain	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 responded	xcomp
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 fear	cc
8	fear	fear	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 pain	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	respond speech: other	present · perfect	the cat	pain and fear					vn respond-113 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

The cat seeks to dominate the household

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cat	det
2	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 seeks	nsubj
3	seeks	seek	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 dominate	mark
5	dominate	dominate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 seeks	xcomp
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 household	det
7	household	household	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 dominate	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	seek	present	the cat						tree rules
2	dominate not said to happen	to-infinitive	the cat not said here	the household					vn contiguous_location-47.8-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme household=Co-Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

The cat is of a malicious disposition

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cat	det
2	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 disposition	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 disposition	cop
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 disposition	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 disposition	det
6	malicious	malicious	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 disposition	amod
7	disposition	disposition	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the cat					of a malicious disposition	tree rules

Option 4

The cat has acted entirely without any cause

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cat	det
2	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 acted	nsubj
3	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 acted	aux
4	acted	act	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	4 acted	advmod
6	without	without	ADP	_	8 cause	case
7	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	8 cause	det
8	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 acted	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	act	present · perfect	the cat					without any cause; entirely property	vn act-114-1-1 «NP V»: 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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/everyday/457-the-cat-that-only-likes-dad-and-other-choosy-pets/e3/