Exam question 1 · The African savanna area: hippos, meerkats, ostriches, wil…

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the locomotion of the hippopotamus in water?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: locomotion

This is exam question 1 of lesson 102 «The African savanna area: hippos, meerkats, ostriches, wild dogs and hyenas» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 locomotion	det
10	locomotion	locomotion	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 hippopotamus	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 hippopotamus	det
13	hippopotamus	hippopotamus	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 locomotion	nmod
14	in	in	ADP	_	15 water	case
15	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 hippopotamus	nmod
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the locomotion of the hippopotamus in water				of the following statements; accurately 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 avoids water entirely and inhabits dry plains

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 avoids	nsubj
2	avoids	avoid	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 avoids	obj
4	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	2 avoids	advmod
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 inhabits	cc
6	inhabits	inhabit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 avoids	conj
7	dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 plains	amod
8	plains	plain	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 inhabits	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	avoid	present	It	water				entirely property	vn avoid-52 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent water=Location
2	inhabit	present		dry plains					tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

It walks or bounds along the bottom, being too dense to swim in the ordinary sense

The tree, 16 words

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 walks	nsubj
2	walks	walk	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	or	or	CCONJ	_	4 bounds	cc
4	bounds	bound	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 walks	conj
5	along	along	ADP	_	7 bottom	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 bottom	det
7	bottom	bottom	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 bounds	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 dense	punct
9	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	11 dense	cop
10	too	too	ADV	_	11 dense	advmod
11	dense	dense	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 walks	conj
12	to	to	PART	_	13 swim	mark
13	swim	swim	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 dense	xcomp
14	in	in	ADP	_	17 sense	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 sense	det
16	ordinary	ordinary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 sense	amod
17	sense	sense	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 swim	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	other	roles by
1	walk	present	It			vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	bound	present		the bottom		vn run-51.3.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme along bottom=Trajectory
3	is	gerund			dense property	tree rules
4	swim	to-infinitive		the ordinary sense		vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in sense=Trajectory

Option 3

It floats upon the surface and does not submerge

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 floats	nsubj
2	floats	float	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	upon	upon	ADP	_	5 surface	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 surface	det
5	surface	surface	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 floats	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 submerge	cc
7	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 submerge	aux
8	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	9 submerge	advmod
9	submerge	submerge	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 floats	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	float	present	It			the surface			vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon surface=Trajectory
2	not submerge	present · do-support							vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 4

It swims with great speed by means of its tail

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 swims	nsubj
2	swims	swim	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	with	with	ADP	_	5 speed	case
4	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 speed	amod
5	speed	speed	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 swims	obl
6	by	by	ADP	_	7 means	case
7	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 swims	conj
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 tail	case
9	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 tail	nmod:poss
10	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 means	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	swim	present	It					with great speed	vn swarm-47.5.1-1 «PP.location V PP.theme»: agent=Location with speed=Theme
2	mean	present						of speed's tail	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent

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/biology/102-the-african-savanna-area-hippos-meerkats-ostriches/e1/