Exam question 4 · The Lion King's hyenas, Rafiki and Zazu: real hyenas, mand…

Ascertain the purpose for which the female red-billed hornbill seals the entrance to her nest with mud.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, female billed hornbill · What happens: ascertain, bill, seal · To what, where: purpose, entrance

This is exam question 4 of lesson 126 «The Lion King's hyenas, Rafiki and Zazu: real hyenas, mandrills and hornbills» 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 purpose	det
3	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 seals	obl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 hornbill	det
7	female	female	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 hornbill	amod
8	red	red	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 billed	amod
9	-	-	PUNCT	_	8 red	punct
10	billed	bill	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 hornbill	amod
11	hornbill	hornbill	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 seals	nsubj
12	seals	seal	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 purpose	acl:relcl
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 entrance	det
14	entrance	entrance	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 seals	obj
15	to	to	ADP	_	17 nest	case
16	her	her	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 nest	nmod:poss
17	nest	nest	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 seals	obl
18	with	with	ADP	_	19 mud	case
19	mud	mud	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 seals	obl
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the purpose		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent purpose=Topic
2	bill	participle				vn bill-54.5-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent
3	seal	present	the female billed hornbill	the entrance	for the purpose; to hornbill's nest; with mud	vn tape-22.4 «NP V NP PP.co-patient PP.instrument»: agent=Agent entrance=Patient to nest=Co-Patient with mud=Instrument

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

The suppression of noise made by the chicks

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 suppression	det
2	suppression	suppression	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 noise	case
4	noise	noise	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 suppression	nmod
5	made	make	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 suppression	acl
6	by	by	ADP	_	8 chicks	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 chicks	det
8	chicks	chick	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 made	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	participle		the suppression of noise not said here				by the chicks	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset
2	suppress			noise					nom suppression «process transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

The exclusion of the male from the nest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 exclusion	det
2	exclusion	exclusion	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 male	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 male	det
5	male	male	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 exclusion	nmod
6	from	from	ADP	_	8 nest	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 nest	det
8	nest	nest	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 male	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	exclude			the male from the nest					nom exclusion «state transitive»: of=patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The exclusion of snakes, monkeys and other thieves of eggs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 exclusion	det
2	exclusion	exclusion	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 snakes	case
4	snakes	snake	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 exclusion	nmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 monkeys	punct
6	monkeys	monkey	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 snakes	conj
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 thieves	cc
8	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 thieves	amod
9	thieves	thief	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 snakes	conj
10	of	of	ADP	_	11 eggs	case
11	eggs	egg	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 thieves	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	exclude			snakes and monkeys and other thieves of eggs					nom exclusion «state transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

The exclusion of rainwater during the wet season

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 exclusion	det
2	exclusion	exclusion	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 rainwater	case
4	rainwater	rainwater	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 exclusion	nmod
5	during	during	ADP	_	8 season	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 season	det
7	wet	wet	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 season	amod
8	season	season	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 exclusion	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	exclude			rainwater			during the wet season		nom exclusion «state transitive»: of=patient during=obl

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/126-the-lion-king-hyenas-rafiki-and-zazu/e4/