Exam question 2 · Ice Age: real woolly mammoths

Identify the principal reason for which the woolly mammoth possessed ears and a tail of small dimensions.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, possess · To what, where: principal reason, woolly mammoth

This is exam question 2 of lesson 130 «Ice Age: real woolly mammoths» 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	DET	PronType=Int	11 ears	det
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 mammoth	det
8	woolly	woolly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 mammoth	amod
9	mammoth	mammoth	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 ears	compound
10	possessed	possess	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 mammoth	acl
11	ears	ear	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 reason	nmod
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 tail	cc
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 tail	det
14	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 reason	conj
15	of	of	ADP	_	17 dimensions	case
16	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 dimensions	amod
17	dimensions	dimension	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 tail	nmod
18	.	.	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 which mammoth ears and a tail of small dimensions					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	possess	participle		the woolly mammoth not said here					vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot

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 extremities were habitually removed by predators

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 extremities	det
2	extremities	extremity	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 removed	nsubj:pass
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 removed	aux:pass
4	habitually	habitually	ADV	_	5 removed	advmod
5	removed	remove	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	by	by	ADP	_	7 predators	case
7	predators	predator	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 removed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	remove	past · passive	predators	the extremities				habitually property	vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme

Option 2

Small extremities permitted superior hearing of approaching wolves in deep snow

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 extremities	amod
2	extremities	extremity	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 hearing	nsubj
3	permitted	permit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 hearing	amod
4	superior	superior	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 hearing	amod
5	hearing	hearing	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	of	of	SCONJ	_	7 approaching	mark
7	approaching	approach	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 hearing	acl
8	wolves	wolf	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 approaching	obj
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 snow	case
10	deep	deep	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 snow	amod
11	snow	snow	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 approaching	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	permit	participle							vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Causer
2	approach	gerund	permitted superior hearing not said here	wolves		deep snow			vn confront-98 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wolf=Theme

Option 3

Small extremities were characteristic solely of juvenile animals

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 extremities	amod
2	extremities	extremity	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 characteristic	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 characteristic	cop
4	characteristic	characteristic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	solely	solely	ADV	_	4 characteristic	advmod
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 animals	case
7	juvenile	juvenile	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 animals	compound
8	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 characteristic	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	Small extremities					of juvenile animals; characteristic, solely property	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Small extremities lose less heat and are less susceptible to freezing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 extremities	amod
2	extremities	extremity	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 lose	nsubj
3	lose	lose	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	less	less	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	5 heat	amod
5	heat	heat	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lose	obj
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 susceptible	cc
7	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 susceptible	cop
8	less	less	ADV	Degree=Cmp	9 susceptible	advmod
9	susceptible	susceptible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 lose	conj
10	to	to	ADP	_	11 freezing	case
11	freezing	freezing	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 susceptible	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lose	present	Small extremities	less heat					vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent heat=Eventuality
2	is	present	Small extremities not said here					to freezing; less, susceptible property	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/130-ice-age-real-woolly-mammoths/e2/