Exam question 1 · Magpies, geese, ponies and swans: animals that are not you…

Identify the principal reason for which certain birds descend upon pedestrians during the spring months.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, certain birds · What happens: identify, descend · To what, where: principal reason

This is exam question 1 of lesson 458 «Magpies, geese, ponies and swans: animals that are not your friends» 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	9 descend	obl
7	certain	certain	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 birds	amod
8	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 descend	nsubj
9	descend	descend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl:relcl
10	upon	upon	ADP	_	11 pedestrians	case
11	pedestrians	pedestrian	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 descend	obl
12	during	during	ADP	_	15 months	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 months	det
14	spring	spring	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 months	compound
15	months	month	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 descend	obl
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	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	descend	present	certain birds				month	for the principal reason; upon pedestrians	vn meander-47.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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 · ← Mova's choice

A seasonal hostility towards all humans

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 hostility	det
2	seasonal	seasonal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 hostility	amod
3	hostility	hostility	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	towards	towards	ADP	_	6 humans	case
5	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	6 humans	det
6	humans	human	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 hostility	nmod

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

Option 2

An attempt to obtain food from the pedestrian

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 attempt	det
2	attempt	attempt	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 obtain	mark
4	obtain	obtain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 attempt	acl
5	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 obtain	obj
6	from	from	ADP	_	8 pedestrian	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 pedestrian	det
8	pedestrian	pedestrian	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 obtain	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	obtain	to-infinitive		food		the pedestrian			vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent food=Theme from pedestrian=Source

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The defence of nests containing their young

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 defence	det
2	defence	defence	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 nests	case
4	nests	nest	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 defence	nmod
5	containing	contain	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 defence	acl
6	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 young	nmod:poss
7	young	young	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 containing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	contain	gerund	the defence of nests not said here	nests's young					vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot young=Theme
2	defend			nests					nom defence «process transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

A preference for the hair of children

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 preference	det
2	preference	preference	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	for	for	ADP	_	5 hair	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 hair	det
5	hair	hair	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 preference	nmod
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 children	case
7	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 hair	nmod

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/458-magpies-geese-ponies-and-swans-animals-that-are-not-your-friends/e1/