Exam question 4 · The Australian walkabout: kangaroos, emus, wallabies and d…

State the principal purpose of the fence extending more than five thousand kilometres across Australia.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: fence · What happens: extend, purpose · To what, where: thousand kilometres, Australia

This is exam question 4 of lesson 103 «The Australian walkabout: kangaroos, emus, wallabies and dingoes» 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	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 purpose	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 purpose	amod
4	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 State	appos
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 fence	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 fence	det
7	fence	fence	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 purpose	nmod
8	extending	extend	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 fence	acl
9	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp ExtPos=ADV	12 thousand	advmod
10	than	than	ADP	_	9 more	fixed
11	five	five	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	12 thousand	compound
12	thousand	thousand	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	13 kilometres	nummod
13	kilometres	kilometre	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 extending	obl:unmarked
14	across	across	ADP	_	15 Australia	case
15	Australia	Australia	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 extending	obl
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 State	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	extend	gerund	the fence not said here	thousand kilometres		Australia			vn body_motion-49.2-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent across australia=Path
2	purpose		the fence						nom purpose «cognition intransitive»: of=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

To confine emus to the coast

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 confine	mark
2	confine	confine	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	emus	emu	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 confine	obj
4	to	to	ADP	_	6 coast	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 coast	det
6	coast	coast	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 confine	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	confine	to-infinitive		emus		the coast			vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent emu=Theme to coast=Destination

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

To exclude dingoes from the sheep-farming regions

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 exclude	mark
2	exclude	exclude	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	dingoes	dingo	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 exclude	obj
4	from	from	ADP	_	9 regions	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 regions	det
6	sheep	sheep	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 farming	compound
7	-	-	PUNCT	_	6 sheep	punct
8	farming	farming	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 regions	compound
9	regions	region	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 exclude	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	exclude	to-infinitive			dingoes	the farming regions			vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Causer dingo=Beneficiary from region=Eventuality

Option 3

To mark the boundary between two states

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 mark	mark
2	mark	mark	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 boundary	det
4	boundary	boundary	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 mark	obj
5	between	between	ADP	_	7 states	case
6	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 states	nummod
7	states	state	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 mark	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mark	to-infinitive		the boundary		two states			vn image_impression-25.1 «NP V NP.theme PP.destination»: agent=Agent boundary=Theme between state=Destination

Option 4

To prevent kangaroos from crossing the highways at night

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 prevent	mark
2	prevent	prevent	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	kangaroos	kangaroo	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 prevent	obj
4	from	from	SCONJ	_	5 crossing	mark
5	crossing	cross	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 prevent	advcl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 highways	det
7	highways	highway	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 crossing	obj
8	at	at	ADP	_	9 night	case
9	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 crossing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prevent	to-infinitive		kangaroos					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer kangaroo=Theme
2	cross	gerund		the highways			night		vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent highway=Patient

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/103-the-australian-walkabout-kangaroos-emus-wallabies-dingoes/e4/