Test 10 · ★ · Birds: feathers, nests and flight

why do birds keep picking at their feathers all the time

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: birds · What happens: keep, pick

This is test 10 · ★ of lesson 73 «Birds: feathers, nests and flight» of the world 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	why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	4 keep	advmod
2	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 keep	aux
3	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 keep	nsubj
4	keep	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	picking	pick	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 keep	xcomp
6	at	at	ADP	_	8 feathers	case
7	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 feathers	nmod:poss
8	feathers	feather	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 picking	obl
9	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	11 time	det:predet
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 time	det
11	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 picking	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	present · do-support	birds						tree rules
2	pick	gerund	birds not said here				time	at birds's feathers	vn chew-39.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent at feather=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

They are pulling out feathers to build nests

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 pulling	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 pulling	aux
3	pulling	pull	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	out	out	ADP	_	3 pulling	compound:prt
5	feathers	feather	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 pulling	obj
6	to	to	PART	_	7 build	mark
7	build	build	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 pulling	advcl
8	nests	nest	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 build	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pull out	present · progressive	They	feathers					tree rules
2	build	to-infinitive	They not said here	nests					vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset nest=Product

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

They preen to keep their feathers clean, tidy and waterproof

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 preen	nsubj
2	preen	preen	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 keep	mark
4	keep	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 preen	advcl
5	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 feathers	nmod:poss
6	feathers	feather	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 keep	obj
7	clean	clean	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 keep	xcomp
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 tidy	punct
9	tidy	tidy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 clean	conj
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 waterproof	cc
11	waterproof	waterproof	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 clean	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	preen	present	They						vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	keep	to-infinitive	They not said here	their feathers				clean property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent feather=Theme

Option 3

They are scratching bites from other birds

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 scratching	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 scratching	aux
3	scratching	scratch	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	bites	bite	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 scratching	obj
5	from	from	ADP	_	7 birds	case
6	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 birds	amod
7	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 scratching	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	scratch	present · progressive	They	bites				from other birds	vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent bite=Patient from bird=Source

Option 4

They are looking for food hidden in them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 looking	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 looking	aux
3	looking	look	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 food	case
5	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 looking	obl
6	hidden	hide	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 looking	xcomp
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 them	case
8	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 hidden	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	look	present · progressive	They					for food	tree rules
2	hide	participle	They not said here					in them = they	vn concealment-16-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent in they=Location

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/t10/