Exam question 4 · The polar zone: arctic foxes, snowy owls, lemmings and rei…

State the principal difference between the Arctic and the Antarctic.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗

This is exam question 4 of lesson 106 «The polar zone: arctic foxes, snowy owls, lemmings and reindeer» 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 difference	nsubj
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 difference	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 difference	amod
4	difference	difference	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	between	between	ADP	_	7 Arctic	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 Arctic	det
7	Arctic	Arctic	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 difference	nmod
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 Antarctic	cc
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 Antarctic	det
10	Antarctic	Antarctic	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 Arctic	conj
11	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 difference	punct

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

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

The Arctic is land, whereas the Antarctic is open water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Arctic	det
2	Arctic	Arctic	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 land	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 land	cop
4	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 water	punct
6	whereas	whereas	SCONJ	_	11 water	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Antarctic	det
8	Antarctic	Antarctic	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 water	nsubj
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 water	cop
10	open	open	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 water	amod
11	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 land	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the Arctic	land and open water					tree rules
2	is	present	the Antarctic					whereas open water	tree rules

Option 2

Both regions are inhabited by land mammals such as the fox and the bear

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	2 regions	det
2	regions	region	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 inhabited	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 inhabited	aux:pass
4	inhabited	inhabit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 mammals	case
6	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 mammals	compound
7	mammals	mammal	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 inhabited	obl
8	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos ExtPos=ADP	11 fox	case
9	as	as	ADP	_	8 such	fixed
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 fox	det
11	fox	fox	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 mammals	nmod
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 bear	cc
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 bear	det
14	bear	bear	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 fox	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	inhabit	present · passive	land mammals such the fox and the bear	both regions					tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The Arctic is a frozen ocean surrounded by land, whereas Antarctica is ice-covered land surrounded by ocean

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Arctic	det
2	Arctic	Arctic	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 ocean	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 ocean	cop
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 ocean	det
5	frozen	frozen	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 ocean	amod
6	ocean	ocean	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	surrounded	surround	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 ocean	acl
8	by	by	ADP	_	9 land	case
9	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 surrounded	obl:agent
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 land	punct
11	whereas	whereas	SCONJ	_	17 land	case
12	Antarctica	Antarctica	PROPN	Number=Sing	17 land	nsubj
13	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	17 land	cop
14	ice	ice	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 land	compound
15	-	-	PUNCT	_	14 ice	punct
16	covered	cover	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	17 land	amod
17	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 ocean	advcl
18	surrounded	surround	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	17 land	acl
19	by	by	ADP	_	20 ocean	case
20	ocean	ocean	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 surrounded	obl:agent

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the Arctic	a frozen ocean		tree rules
2	surround	participle		a frozen ocean not said here		vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme
3	cover	participle				vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme
4	is	present	Antarctica		whereas ice covered land	tree rules
5	surround	participle		ice covered land not said here		vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme

Option 4

Both regions are frozen oceans surrounded by land

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	2 regions	det
2	regions	region	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 oceans	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 oceans	cop
4	frozen	freeze	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 oceans	amod
5	oceans	ocean	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
6	surrounded	surround	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 oceans	acl
7	by	by	ADP	_	8 land	case
8	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 surrounded	obl:agent

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	freeze	participle			vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
2	is a	present	both regions	frozen oceans	tree rules
3	surround	participle		frozen oceans not said here	vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme

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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