Exam question 1 · Feeding times and the zoo kitchen

Identify the principal reason for which many zoological institutions withhold food from large felids on one or two days per week.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, many zoological institutions · What happens: identify, withhold · To what, where: principal reason, food, large felids

This is exam question 1 of lesson 111 «Feeding times and the zoo kitchen» 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	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 withhold	obl
7	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 institutions	amod
8	zoological	zoological	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 institutions	amod
9	institutions	institution	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 withhold	nsubj
10	withhold	withhold	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl:relcl
11	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 withhold	obj
12	from	from	ADP	_	14 felids	case
13	large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 felids	amod
14	felids	felid	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 withhold	obl
15	on	on	ADP	_	19 days	case
16	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	19 days	nummod
17	or	or	CCONJ	_	18 two	cc
18	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	16 one	conj
19	days	day	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 withhold	obl
20	per	per	ADP	_	21 week	case
21	week	week	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 days	nmod
22	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	withhold	present	many zoological institutions	food		large felids	day	for the principal reason	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

Hunger renders the animals more docile towards visitors

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Hunger	hunger	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 renders	nsubj
2	renders	render	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 animals	det
4	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 renders	obj
5	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	6 docile	advmod
6	docile	docile	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 renders	xcomp
7	towards	towards	ADP	_	8 visitors	case
8	visitors	visitor	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 renders	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	render	present	Hunger	the animals				towards visitors; docile property	vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent animal=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Wild felids do not feed daily, and such fasting prevents obesity

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Wild	wild	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 felids	amod
2	felids	felid	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 feed	nsubj
3	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 feed	aux
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 feed	advmod
5	feed	feed	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	daily	daily	ADV	_	5 feed	advmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 prevents	punct
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 prevents	cc
9	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 fasting	amod
10	fasting	fasting	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 prevents	nsubj
11	prevents	prevent	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 feed	conj
12	obesity	obesity	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 prevents	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not feed	present · do-support	Wild felids					daily property	vn gorge-39.6 «NP V PP.patient»: agent=Agent
2	prevent	present	such fasting	obesity					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer obesity=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Felids are incapable of digesting food upon any two consecutive days

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Felids	felid	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 incapable	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 incapable	cop
3	incapable	incapable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	of	of	SCONJ	_	5 digesting	mark
5	digesting	digest	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 incapable	advcl
6	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 digesting	obj
7	upon	upon	ADP	_	11 days	case
8	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	11 days	det
9	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	11 days	nummod
10	consecutive	consecutive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 days	amod
11	days	day	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 digesting	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Felids					incapable property	tree rules
2	digest	gerund	Felids not said here	food			day		tree rules

Option 4

Keeping staff are not employed on those days

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Keeping	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 staff	amod
2	staff	staff	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 employed	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 employed	aux:pass
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 employed	advmod
5	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	on	on	ADP	_	8 days	case
7	those	that	DET	Number=Plur PronType=Dem	8 days	det
8	days	day	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 employed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	gerund							vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	not employ	present · passive		Keeping staff			day		vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: subject=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/111-feeding-times-and-the-zoo-kitchen/e1/