Exam question 2 · Marty, Gloria and Melman: real zebras, hippos and giraffes

Identify the principal reason for which the hippopotamus does not float.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, hippopotamus · What happens: identify, not float · To what, where: principal reason

This is exam question 2 of lesson 128 «Marty, Gloria and Melman: real zebras, hippos and giraffes» 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	11 float	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 hippopotamus	det
8	hippopotamus	hippopotamus	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 float	nsubj
9	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 float	aux
10	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	11 float	advmod
11	float	float	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 reason	acl:relcl
12	.	.	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	not float	present · do-support	the hippopotamus					for the principal reason	vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=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 · ← Mova's choice

It is devoid of lungs

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	3 devoid	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 devoid	cop
3	devoid	devoid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 lungs	case
5	lungs	lung	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 devoid	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					of lungs; devoid property	tree rules

Option 2

Its skin is composed of mineral matter

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 skin	nmod:poss
2	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 composed	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 composed	aux:pass
4	composed	compose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 mineral	case
6	mineral	mineral	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 composed	obl
7	matter	matter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 composed	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	compose	present · passive		Its skin				of mineral	vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Result
2	matter	present							vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Its bones are of great density and weight

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 bones	nmod:poss
2	bones	bone	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 density	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 density	cop
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 density	case
5	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 density	amod
6	density	density	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 weight	cc
8	weight	weight	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 density	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Its bones					of great density and weight	tree rules

Option 4

It ingests a large quantity of water

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 ingests	nsubj
2	ingests	ingest	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 quantity	det
4	large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 quantity	amod
5	quantity	quantity	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 ingests	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 water	case
7	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 quantity	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ingest	present	It	a large quantity of water					vn absorb-39.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Goal quantity=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/128-madagascar-real-zebras-hippos-and-giraffes/e2/