Exam question 4 · Zootopia: real sloths, shrews, predators and prey

Ascertain the relative abundance of predators and prey in a natural ecosystem such as the Serengeti.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain · To what, where: relative abundance

This is exam question 4 of lesson 142 «Zootopia: real sloths, shrews, predators and prey» 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 abundance	det
3	relative	relative	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 abundance	amod
4	abundance	abundance	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 predators	case
6	predators	predator	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 abundance	nmod
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 prey	cc
8	prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 predators	conj
9	in	in	ADP	_	12 ecosystem	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 ecosystem	det
11	natural	natural	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 ecosystem	amod
12	ecosystem	ecosystem	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 prey	nmod
13	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos ExtPos=ADP	16 Serengeti	case
14	as	as	ADP	_	13 such	fixed
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 Serengeti	det
16	Serengeti	Serengeti	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 ecosystem	nmod
17	.	.	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 relative abundance of predators and prey in a natural ecosystem such the Serengeti					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent abundance=Topic

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

Predators greatly outnumber prey animals

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Predators	predator	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 outnumber	nsubj
2	greatly	greatly	ADV	_	3 outnumber	advmod
3	outnumber	outnumber	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 animals	compound
5	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 outnumber	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	outnumber	present	Predators	prey animals				greatly property	vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot animal=Theme

Option 2

Prey animals are wholly absent

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 animals	compound
2	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 absent	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 absent	cop
4	wholly	wholly	ADV	_	5 absent	advmod
5	absent	absent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Prey animals					absent, wholly property	tree rules

Option 3

Predators and prey occur in equal numbers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Predators	predator	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 occur	nsubj
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 prey	cc
3	prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Predators	conj
4	occur	occur	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 numbers	case
6	equal	equal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 numbers	amod
7	numbers	number	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 occur	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	occur	present	Predators and prey			equal numbers			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in number=Location

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Prey animals greatly outnumber predators

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 animals	compound
2	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 outnumber	nsubj
3	greatly	greatly	ADV	_	4 outnumber	advmod
4	outnumber	outnumber	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	predators	predator	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 outnumber	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	outnumber	present	Prey animals	predators				greatly property	vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot predator=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/142-zootopia-real-sloths-shrews-predators-and-prey/e4/