Exam question 3 · Spike and Tom: real dogs and cats, enemies or friends?

Ascertain the significance of the growl emitted by a dog in respect of its food bowl.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, emit, respect · To what, where: significance, growl, respect, food bowl

This is exam question 3 of lesson 121 «Spike and Tom: real dogs and cats, enemies or friends?» 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 significance	det
3	significance	significance	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 growl	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 growl	det
6	growl	growl	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 significance	nmod
7	emitted	emit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 growl	acl
8	by	by	ADP	_	10 dog	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 dog	det
10	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 emitted	obl:agent
11	in	in	ADP	_	12 respect	case
12	respect	respect	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 emitted	obl
13	of	of	ADP	_	16 bowl	case
14	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 bowl	nmod:poss
15	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 bowl	compound
16	bowl	bowl	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 respect	nmod
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the significance of the growl		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent significance=Topic
2	emit	participle		the growl not said here	respect of respect's food bowl	vn substance_emission-43.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Source
3	respect			respect's food bowl		nom respect «cognition transitive»: of=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 · ← Mova's choice

It constitutes an indication of illness

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 constitutes	nsubj
2	constitutes	constitute	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 indication	det
4	indication	indication	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 constitutes	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 illness	case
6	illness	illness	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 indication	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	constitute	present	It	a indication of illness					vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme indication=Pivot
2	indicate			illness					nom indication «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

It constitutes a request for an additional portion

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 constitutes	nsubj
2	constitutes	constitute	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 request	det
4	request	request	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 constitutes	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	8 portion	case
6	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 portion	det
7	additional	additional	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 portion	amod
8	portion	portion	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 constitutes	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	constitute	present	It	a request				for a additional portion	vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme request=Pivot

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

It constitutes a warning to desist, issued prior to any bite

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 warning	nsubj
2	constitutes	constitute	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 warning	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 warning	det
4	warning	warning	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 desist	mark
6	desist	desist	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 warning	acl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 issued	punct
8	issued	issue	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 warning	acl
9	prior	prior	ADJ	Degree=Pos ExtPos=ADP	12 bite	case
10	to	to	ADP	_	9 prior	fixed
11	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	12 bite	det
12	bite	bite	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 issued	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a warning		tree rules
2	desist	to-infinitive				vn refrain-69 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	issue	participle		a warning not said here	prior any bite	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

It constitutes an invitation to share the contents

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 constitutes	nsubj
2	constitutes	constitute	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 invitation	det
4	invitation	invitation	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 constitutes	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 share	mark
6	share	share	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 constitutes	advcl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 contents	det
8	contents	contents	NOUN	Number=Ptan	6 share	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	constitute	present	It	a invitation					vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme invitation=Pivot
2	share	to-infinitive		the contents					tree rules

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/121-spike-and-tom-real-dogs-and-cats/e3/