Exam question 2 · Birds: feathers, nests and flight

Identify the principal reason for which many of a bird's bones are hollow.

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

This is exam question 2 of lesson 73 «Birds: feathers, nests and flight» of the world 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	14 hollow	obl
7	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 hollow	nsubj
8	of	of	ADP	_	12 bones	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 bird	det
10	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 bones	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 bird	case
12	bones	bone	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 many	nmod
13	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 hollow	cop
14	hollow	hollow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	acl:relcl
15	.	.	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	is	present	many of a bird's bones					for the principal reason; hollow property	tree rules

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

It permits the bird to float upon water

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 permits	nsubj
2	permits	permit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 bird	det
4	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 permits	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 float	mark
6	float	float	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 permits	advcl
7	upon	upon	ADP	_	8 water	case
8	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 float	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	permit	present	It	the bird					vn admit-64.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bird=Theme
2	float	to-infinitive				water			vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon water=Trajectory

Option 2

It renders the bird warmer in winter

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 renders	nsubj
2	renders	render	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 bird	det
4	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 renders	obj
5	warmer	warm	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	2 renders	xcomp
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 winter	case
7	winter	winter	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 renders	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	render	present	It	the bird			winter	warm property	vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bird=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

It renders the bird light for flight

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 renders	nsubj
2	renders	render	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 light	det
4	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 light	compound
5	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 renders	obj
6	for	for	ADP	_	7 flight	case
7	flight	flight	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 light	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	render	present	It	the bird light				for flight	vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent light=Theme

Option 4

It permits the bird to store water

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 permits	nsubj
2	permits	permit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 bird	det
4	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 permits	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 store	mark
6	store	store	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 permits	advcl
7	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 store	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	permit	present	It	the bird					vn admit-64.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bird=Theme
2	store	to-infinitive		water					vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent water=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/world/73-birds-feathers-nests-flight/e2/