Exam question 4 · The African savanna area: giraffes, zebras, rhinos and ant…

State the principal significance of the stiff-legged vertical leap termed pronking, as exhibited by springboks.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: principal significance · What happens: term, pronk, exhibit · To what, where: State

This is exam question 4 of lesson 101 «The African savanna area: giraffes, zebras, rhinos and antelopes» of the biology 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	State	state	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 termed	obl:unmarked
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 significance	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 significance	amod
4	significance	significance	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 termed	nsubj
5	of	of	ADP	_	11 leap	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 leap	det
7	stiff	stiff	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 legged	amod
8	-	-	PUNCT	_	7 stiff	punct
9	legged	legged	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 leap	amod
10	vertical	vertical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 leap	amod
11	leap	leap	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 significance	nmod
12	termed	term	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
13	pronking	pronk	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	12 termed	xcomp
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 exhibited	punct
15	as	as	SCONJ	_	16 exhibited	mark
16	exhibited	exhibit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	13 pronking	xcomp
17	by	by	ADP	_	18 springboks	case
18	springboks	springbok	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 exhibited	obl
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	12 termed	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	term	past	the principal significance of the legged vertical leap	State		tree rules
2	pronk	gerund	the principal significance of the legged vertical leap not said here			tree rules
3	exhibit	participle	the principal significance of the legged vertical leap not said here		by springboks	vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

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 enables the animal to reach the foliage of tall trees

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 enables	nsubj
2	enables	enable	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 animal	det
4	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 enables	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 reach	mark
6	reach	reach	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 enables	advcl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 foliage	det
8	foliage	foliage	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 reach	obj
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 trees	case
10	tall	tall	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 trees	amod
11	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 foliage	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	enable	present	It	the animal					tree rules
2	reach	to-infinitive		the foliage of tall trees					vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent foliage=Theme

Option 2

It constitutes a dance performed solely in fine weather

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 constitutes	nsubj
2	constitutes	constitute	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 dance	det
4	dance	dance	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 constitutes	obj
5	performed	perform	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 dance	acl
6	solely	solely	ADV	_	5 performed	advmod
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 weather	case
8	fine	fine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 weather	amod
9	weather	weather	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 performed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	constitute	present	It	a dance					vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme dance=Pivot
2	perform	participle		a dance not said here		fine weather		solely property	vn performance-26.7 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

It signals to a predator that the animal is fit and not worth pursuing

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 signals	nsubj
2	signals	signal	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	to	to	ADP	_	5 predator	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 predator	det
5	predator	predator	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 signals	nmod
6	that	that	SCONJ	_	10 fit	mark
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 animal	det
8	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 fit	nsubj
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 fit	cop
10	fit	fit	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 signals	acl
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 worth	cc
12	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	13 worth	advmod
13	worth	worth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 fit	conj
14	pursuing	pursue	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	13 worth	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	present	the animal	signals to a predator not said here	fit property	tree rules
2	not be		the animal not said here			tree rules
3	pursue	gerund	the animal not said here			vn chase-51.6 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent

Option 4

It serves to dislodge parasites from the coat

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 serves	nsubj
2	serves	serve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 dislodge	mark
4	dislodge	dislodge	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 serves	xcomp
5	parasites	parasite	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 dislodge	obj
6	from	from	ADP	_	8 coat	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 coat	det
8	coat	coat	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 dislodge	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	serve	present	It						tree rules
2	dislodge	to-infinitive		parasites		the coat			vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent parasite=Theme from coat=Initial_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.

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