Test 17 · ★ · Cats and dogs up close

heard a cat scratched a kid's face cos he kept stroking it while its tail was going mad

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: cat, tail · What happens: hear, scratch, keep, stroke, go · To what, where: face · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 17 · ★ of lesson 61 «Cats and dogs up close» 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	heard	hear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 cat	det
3	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 scratched	nsubj
4	scratched	scratch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 heard	ccomp
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 kid	det
6	kid	kid	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 face	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 kid	case
8	face	face	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 heard	obj
9	cos	cos	SCONJ	_	11 kept	mark
10	he	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 kept	nsubj
11	kept	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 heard	advcl
12	stroking	stroke	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	11 kept	xcomp
13	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 stroking	obj
14	while	while	SCONJ	_	18 going	mark
15	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 tail	nmod:poss
16	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 going	nsubj
17	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	18 going	aux
18	going	go	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	12 stroking	advcl
19	mad	mad	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 going	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	hear	past		a kid's face		tree rules
2	scratch	past	a cat			vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	keep	past	cat			tree rules
4	stroke	gerund	cat not said here	face		vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme
5	go	past · progressive	face's tail		mad property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «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 · ✓ the right answer

Real lesson: a thumping tail means an annoyed cat, so stop

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 lesson	amod
2	lesson	lesson	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	:	:	PUNCT	_	7 means	punct
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 tail	det
5	thumping	thump	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 tail	amod
6	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 means	nsubj
7	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 lesson	parataxis
8	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 cat	det
9	annoyed	annoyed	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 cat	amod
10	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 means	obj
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 stop	punct
12	so	so	ADV	_	13 stop	advmod
13	stop	stop	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 lesson	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	thump	gerund			vn bump-18.4-1 «NP V together»: agent=Theme
2	mean	present	a thumping tail	a annoyed cat	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cat=Topic
3	stop	infinitive			vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality

Option 2

Real lesson: cats scratch for no reason

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 lesson	amod
2	lesson	lesson	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 scratch	vocative
3	:	:	PUNCT	_	5 scratch	punct
4	cats	cat	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 scratch	nsubj
5	scratch	scratch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	for	for	ADP	_	8 reason	case
7	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	8 reason	det
8	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 scratch	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	scratch	present	cats					for no reason; Real lesson vocative	vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent for reason=Theme

Option 3

It is gossip, so tails mean nothing

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	3 gossip	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 gossip	cop
3	gossip	gossip	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 mean	punct
5	so	so	ADV	_	7 mean	advmod
6	tails	tail	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 mean	nsubj
7	mean	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 gossip	acl:relcl
8	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	7 mean	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	gossip					tree rules
2	mean	present	tails	nothing					vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nothing=Topic

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

It proves cats only scratch boys

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 proves	nsubj
2	proves	prove	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	cats	cat	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 proves	obj
4	only	only	ADV	_	5 scratch	advmod
5	scratch	scratch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 proves	advcl
6	boys	boy	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 scratch	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prove	present	It	cats					vn deduce-97.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cat=Theme
2	scratch	present		boys					vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent boy=Theme

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/61-cats-and-dogs-up-close/t17/