Exam question 4 · Looney Tunes: the real roadrunner and the real coyote

Ascertain the principal means by which the coyote obtains its prey.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, principal, coyote · What happens: ascertain, mean, obtain · To what, where: prey

This is exam question 4 of lesson 122 «Looney Tunes: the real roadrunner and the real coyote» 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 principal	det
3	principal	principal	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 means	nsubj
4	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Ascertain	ccomp
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 obtains	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 coyote	det
8	coyote	coyote	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 obtains	nsubj
9	obtains	obtain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 means	parataxis
10	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 prey	nmod:poss
11	prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 obtains	obj
12	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here		vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	mean	present	the principal		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
3	obtain	present	the coyote	coyote's prey	vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent prey=Theme

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 right answer

By stalking, pursuit and pouncing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 stalking	mark
2	stalking	stalk	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 pursuit	punct
4	pursuit	pursuit	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 stalking	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 pouncing	cc
6	pouncing	pouncing	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 pursuit	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	stalk	gerund		pursuit and pouncing					vn stalk-35.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pursuit=Theme

Option 2

By awaiting the fall of prey from trees

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 awaiting	mark
2	awaiting	await	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 fall	det
4	fall	fall	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 awaiting	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 prey	case
6	prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 fall	nmod
7	from	from	ADP	_	8 trees	case
8	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 awaiting	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	await	gerund		the fall of prey		trees			tree rules

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

By the employment of manufactured traps

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	3 employment	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 employment	det
3	employment	employment	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 traps	case
5	manufactured	manufacture	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 traps	amod
6	traps	trap	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 employment	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	manufacture	participle							vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	employ			manufactured traps					nom employment «state transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

By the excavation of pits beneath the prey

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	3 excavation	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 excavation	det
3	excavation	excavation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 pits	case
5	pits	pit	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 excavation	nmod
6	beneath	beneath	ADP	_	8 prey	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 prey	det
8	prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 pits	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	excavate		pits beneath the prey						nom excavation «act intransitive»: of=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/122-looney-tunes-real-roadrunner-and-coyote/e4/