Exam question 4 · Koalas, wombats, Tasmanian devils and the platypus

State the principal cause of the decline of the Tasmanian devil in the wild.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Tasmanian devil · What happens: cause, decline · To what, where: decline, wild

This is exam question 4 of lesson 104 «Koalas, wombats, Tasmanian devils and the platypus» 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	4 cause	nsubj
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 cause	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 cause	amod
4	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 decline	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 decline	det
7	decline	decline	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 cause	nmod
8	of	of	ADP	_	11 devil	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 devil	det
10	Tasmanian	Tasmanian	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 devil	compound
11	devil	Devil	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 decline	nmod
12	in	in	ADP	_	14 wild	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 wild	det
14	wild	wild	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 decline	nmod
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 cause	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cause			the decline of the Tasmanian devil in the wild					nom cause «event transitive»: of=patient
2	decline		the Tasmanian devil			the wild			nom decline «process intransitive»: of=agent in=place

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

Predation by the koala

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Predation	predation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	by	by	ADP	_	4 koala	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 koala	det
4	koala	koala	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Predation	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	predate		the koala						nom predation «act transitive»: by=agent

Option 2

A shortage of fresh water in Tasmania

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 shortage	det
2	shortage	shortage	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 water	case
4	fresh	fresh	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 water	amod
5	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 shortage	nmod
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 Tasmania	case
7	Tasmania	Tasmania	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 water	nmod

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

Option 3

The destruction of all the eucalyptus forest in Tasmania

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 destruction	det
2	destruction	destruction	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	7 forest	case
4	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 forest	det:predet
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 forest	det
6	eucalyptus	eucalyptus	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 forest	compound
7	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 destruction	nmod
8	in	in	ADP	_	9 Tasmania	case
9	Tasmania	Tasmania	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 forest	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	destroy			all eucalyptus forest in Tasmania					nom destruction «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

A transmissible cancer passed on by bites to the face

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 cancer	det
2	transmissible	transmissible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 cancer	amod
3	cancer	cancer	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	passed	pass	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 cancer	acl
5	on	on	ADP	_	4 passed	compound:prt
6	by	by	ADP	_	7 bites	case
7	bites	bite	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 passed	obl
8	to	to	ADP	_	10 face	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 face	det
10	face	face	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 passed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pass on	participle		a transmissible cancer not said here		the face		by bites	vn send-11.1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent to face=Destination

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/104-koalas-wombats-tasmanian-devils-and-the-platypus/e4/