Exam question 4 · Madagascar: real lemurs, the aye-aye and the fossa

Ascertain the principal cause of the endangerment of the majority of species of lemur.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, cause · To what, where: principal cause, endangerment

This is exam question 4 of lesson 127 «Madagascar: real lemurs, the aye-aye and the fossa» 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	4 cause	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 cause	amod
4	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 endangerment	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 endangerment	det
7	endangerment	endangerment	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 cause	nmod
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 majority	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 majority	det
10	majority	majority	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 endangerment	nmod
11	of	of	ADP	_	12 species	case
12	species	species	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 majority	nmod
13	of	of	ADP	_	14 lemur	case
14	lemur	lemur	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 species	nmod
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the principal cause of the endangerment of the majority of species of lemur					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cause=Topic
2	cause			the endangerment of the majority of species of lemur					nom cause «event 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

A failure of the species to learn to climb

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 failure	det
2	failure	failure	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 species	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 species	det
5	species	species	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 failure	nmod
6	to	to	PART	_	7 learn	mark
7	learn	learn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 failure	acl
8	to	to	PART	_	9 climb	mark
9	climb	climb	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 learn	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	roles by
1	learn	to-infinitive		vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	climb	to-infinitive		vn run-51.3.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	fail		the species	nom failure «act intransitive»: of=agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The clearance of the forests upon which they depend

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 clearance	det
2	clearance	clearance	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 forests	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 forests	det
5	forests	forest	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 clearance	nmod
6	upon	upon	ADP	_	7 which	case
7	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 depend	obl
8	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 depend	nsubj
9	depend	depend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 forests	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	depend	present	forests = forest					upon the forests	vn rely-70 «NP V PP.theme S_ING»: agent=Agent

Option 3

A decline in the temperature of the island

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 decline	det
2	decline	decline	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 temperature	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 temperature	det
5	temperature	temperature	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 decline	nmod
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 island	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 island	det
8	island	island	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 temperature	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

Predation by lions introduced from Africa

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Predation	predation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	by	by	ADP	_	3 lions	case
3	lions	lion	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Predation	nmod
4	introduced	introduce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Predation	acl
5	from	from	ADP	_	6 Africa	case
6	Africa	Africa	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 introduced	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	introduce	participle		Predation by lions not said here		Africa			vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient
2	predate		lions						nom predation «act transitive»: by=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/127-madagascar-real-lemurs/e4/