Exam question 3 · The Amazon river: pink dolphins, flooded forest, giant fis…

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the pororoca?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: pororoca

This is exam question 3 of lesson 155 «The Amazon river: pink dolphins, flooded forest, giant fish and piranhas» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 pororoca	det
10	pororoca	pororoca	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the pororoca				of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules

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 shoal of predatory fish

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 shoal	det
2	shoal	shoal	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 fish	case
4	predatory	predatory	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 fish	amod
5	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 shoal	nmod

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

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

A tidal wave advancing up the mouth of the river against its current

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 wave	det
2	tidal	tidal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 wave	amod
3	wave	wave	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	advancing	advance	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 wave	acl
5	up	up	ADP	_	4 advancing	compound:prt
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 mouth	det
7	mouth	mouth	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 advancing	obj
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 river	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 river	det
10	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 mouth	nmod
11	against	against	ADP	_	13 current	case
12	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 current	nmod:poss
13	current	current	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 advancing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	advance up	gerund	a tidal wave not said here	the mouth of the river				against river's current	vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Causer mouth=Patient

Option 3

A species of freshwater dolphin of a pink colour

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 species	det
2	species	species	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 dolphin	case
4	freshwater	freshwater	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 dolphin	compound
5	dolphin	dolphin	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 species	nmod
6	of	of	ADP	_	9 colour	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 colour	det
8	pink	pink	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 colour	amod
9	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 dolphin	nmod

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

Option 4

A tract of seasonally flooded forest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 tract	det
2	tract	tract	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 forest	case
4	seasonally	seasonally	ADV	_	5 flooded	advmod
5	flooded	flood	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 forest	amod
6	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 tract	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	flood	participle						seasonally property	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

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/155-the-amazon-river/e3/