Exam question 3 · Birds: feathers, nests and flight

Ascertain the manner in which a bird grinds its food in the absence of teeth.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, bird · What happens: ascertain, grind, absent · To what, where: manner, food, teeth

This is exam question 3 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 manner	det
3	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 grinds	obl
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 bird	det
7	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 grinds	nsubj
8	grinds	grind	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 manner	acl:relcl
9	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 food	nmod:poss
10	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 grinds	obj
11	in	in	ADP	_	13 absence	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 absence	det
13	absence	absence	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 grinds	obl
14	of	of	ADP	_	15 teeth	case
15	teeth	tooth	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 absence	nmod
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the manner			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent manner=Topic
2	grind	present	a bird	bird's food	the manner	in the absence of teeth	vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent food=Patient
3	absent			teeth			nom absence «state transitive»: of=patient

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

By the claws, which tear the food into dust

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	3 claws	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 claws	det
3	claws	claw	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 tear	obl
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 tear	punct
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 tear	nsubj
6	tear	tear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 food	det
8	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 tear	obj
9	into	into	ADP	_	10 dust	case
10	dust	dust	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 tear	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tear	present		the food				into dust result; by the claws	vn break-45.1 «NP V NP PP.result»: agent=Agent food=Patient into dust=Result

Option 2

By the beak, which chews the food thoroughly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	3 beak	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 beak	det
3	beak	beak	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 chews	obl
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 chews	punct
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 chews	nsubj
6	chews	chew	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 food	det
8	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 chews	obj
9	thoroughly	thoroughly	ADV	_	6 chews	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	chew	present		the food				by the beak; thoroughly property	vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent food=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

By the gizzard, a muscly part of the stomach, often with grit

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	3 gizzard	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 gizzard	det
3	gizzard	gizzard	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 part	punct
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 part	det
6	muscly	muscly	ADJ	_	7 part	amod
7	part	part	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 gizzard	appos
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 stomach	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 stomach	det
10	stomach	stomach	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 part	nmod
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 grit	punct
12	often	often	ADV	_	14 grit	advmod
13	with	with	ADP	_	14 grit	case
14	grit	grit	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 gizzard	conj

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

Option 4

By the tongue, pressed against the palate

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	3 tongue	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 tongue	det
3	tongue	tongue	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 pressed	obl
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 tongue	punct
5	pressed	press	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	against	against	ADP	_	8 palate	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 palate	det
8	palate	palate	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 pressed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	press	participle						by the tongue; against the palate	vn push-12-1-1 «NP V PP-Conative»: agent=Agent against palate=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/e3/