Exam question 1 · The city as a habitat

Identify the principal reason for which peregrine falcons establish nests upon tall urban structures.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, peregrine falcons · What happens: identify, establish · To what, where: principal reason, nests

This is exam question 1 of lesson 14 «The city as a habitat» 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	9 establish	obl
7	peregrine	peregrine	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 falcons	compound
8	falcons	falcon	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 establish	nsubj
9	establish	establish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl:relcl
10	nests	nest	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 establish	obj
11	upon	upon	ADP	_	14 structures	case
12	tall	tall	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 structures	amod
13	urban	urban	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 structures	amod
14	structures	structure	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 establish	obl
15	.	.	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	establish	present	peregrine falcons	nests				for the principal reason; upon tall urban structures	vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nest=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

Such structures are maintained at a constant temperature by heating

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 structures	amod
2	structures	structure	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 maintained	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 maintained	aux:pass
4	maintained	maintain	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	at	at	ADP	_	8 temperature	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 temperature	det
7	constant	constant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 temperature	amod
8	temperature	temperature	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 maintained	obl
9	by	by	ADP	_	10 heating	case
10	heating	heating	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 maintained	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	maintain	present · passive	heating	Such structures		a constant temperature			vn declare-29.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent subject=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Such structures resemble natural cliffs and the city affords abundant prey

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 structures	amod
2	structures	structure	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 resemble	nsubj
3	resemble	resemble	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	natural	natural	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 cliffs	amod
5	cliffs	cliff	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 resemble	obj
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 affords	cc
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 city	det
8	city	city	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 affords	nsubj
9	affords	afford	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 resemble	conj
10	abundant	abundant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 prey	amod
11	prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 affords	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	resemble	present	Such structures	natural cliffs					tree rules
2	afford	present	the city	abundant prey					tree rules

Option 3

Tall structures repel all other species of bird

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Tall	tall	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 structures	amod
2	structures	structure	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 repel	nsubj
3	repel	repel	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	6 species	det
5	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 species	amod
6	species	species	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 repel	obj
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 bird	case
8	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 species	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	repel	present	Tall structures	all other species of bird					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus species=Experiencer

Option 4

Peregrine falcons are deliberately housed there by city councils

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Peregrine	peregrine	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 falcons	compound
2	falcons	falcon	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 housed	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 housed	aux:pass
4	deliberately	deliberately	ADV	_	5 housed	advmod
5	housed	house	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	5 housed	advmod
7	by	by	ADP	_	9 councils	case
8	city	city	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 councils	compound
9	councils	council	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 housed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	house	present · passive	city councils	Peregrine falcons		there		deliberately property	vn fit-54.3 «NP.location V NP»: agent=Location subject=Value

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.

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