Exam question 2 · The South American area: sloths, anteaters, piranhas and g…

Identify the means by which the giant anteater, being without teeth, reduces its food.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, the · What happens: identify, mean, be, reduce · To what, where: food

This is exam question 2 of lesson 108 «The South American area: sloths, anteaters, piranhas and giant otters» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 means	nsubj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Identify	ccomp
4	by	by	ADP	_	8 anteater	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 anteater	nsubj
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 anteater	det
7	giant	giant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 anteater	amod
8	anteater	anteater	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 means	obl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 teeth	punct
10	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	12 teeth	cop
11	without	without	ADP	_	12 teeth	case
12	teeth	tooth	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 anteater	conj
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 reduces	punct
14	reduces	reduce	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 means	conj
15	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 food	nmod:poss
16	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 reduces	obj
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	mean	present	the		by the giant anteater and teeth	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
3	is	gerund	the not said here		without teeth	tree rules
4	reduce	present	the not said here	its food		vn limit-76 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer food=Patient

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

The food is softened by soaking in water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 food	det
2	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 softened	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 softened	aux:pass
4	softened	soften	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	SCONJ	_	6 soaking	mark
6	soaking	soak	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 softened	advcl
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 water	case
8	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 soaking	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	soften	present · passive		the food					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient
2	soak	gerund						in water	vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent in water=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

The food is chewed by ridges upon the tongue

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 food	det
2	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 chewed	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 chewed	aux:pass
4	chewed	chew	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 ridges	case
6	ridges	ridge	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 chewed	obl
7	upon	upon	ADP	_	9 tongue	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 tongue	det
9	tongue	tongue	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 chewed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	chew	present · passive	ridges	the food				upon the tongue	vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The food is ground in the stomach

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 food	det
2	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 ground	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 ground	cop
4	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 stomach	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 stomach	det
7	stomach	stomach	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 ground	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the food	ground		the stomach			tree rules

Option 4

The food is dissolved in the mouth before swallowing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 food	det
2	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 dissolved	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 dissolved	aux:pass
4	dissolved	dissolve	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 mouth	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 mouth	det
7	mouth	mouth	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 dissolved	obl
8	before	before	SCONJ	_	9 swallowing	mark
9	swallowing	swallow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 dissolved	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dissolve	present · passive		the food		the mouth			vn break-45.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
2	swallow	gerund							vn hiccup-40.1.1 «NP V»: 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.

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