Exam question 4 · The Amazon river: pink dolphins, flooded forest, giant fis…

Ascertain the reason for which the Rio Negro and the Solimões flow alongside one another for several kilometres prior to mixing.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, Rio Negro · What happens: ascertain, flow · To what, where: reason, another

This is exam question 4 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 flow	obl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Negro	det
7	Rio	Rio	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 Negro	compound
8	Negro	Negro	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 flow	nsubj
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 Solimões	cc
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 Solimões	det
11	Solimões	Solimõe	PROPN	Number=Plur	8 Negro	conj
12	flow	flow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	acl:relcl
13	alongside	alongside	ADP	_	15 another	case
14	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	15 another	nummod
15	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	12 flow	obl
16	for	for	ADP	_	18 kilometres	case
17	several	several	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 kilometres	amod
18	kilometres	kilometre	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 flow	obl
19	prior	prior	ADJ	Degree=Pos ExtPos=ADP	21 mixing	case
20	to	to	ADP	_	19 prior	fixed
21	mixing	mixing	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 flow	obl
22	.	.	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 reason					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	flow	present	the Rio Negro and the Solimões			another		for the reason; for several kilometres; prior mixing	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme alongside another=Location

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 right answer

The two waters differ in temperature, velocity and dissolved substances

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 waters	det
2	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 waters	nummod
3	waters	water	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 differ	nsubj
4	differ	differ	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 temperature	case
6	temperature	temperature	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 differ	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 velocity	punct
8	velocity	velocity	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 temperature	conj
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 substances	cc
10	dissolved	dissolve	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 substances	amod
11	substances	substance	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 temperature	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	differ	present	the two waters			temperature and velocity and dissolved substances			vn correspond-36.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	dissolve	participle							vn break-45.1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 2

The fish of each river prevent intermingling

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 fish	det
2	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 prevent	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 river	case
4	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	5 river	det
5	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 fish	nmod
6	prevent	prevent	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	intermingling	intermingle	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 prevent	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prevent	present	the fish of each river						vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Causer clause=Eventuality
2	intermingle	gerund	the fish of each river not said here						vn amalgamate-22.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient

Option 3

The one river flows in the contrary direction to the other, so that they cannot join

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 river	det
2	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 river	compound
3	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 flows	nsubj
4	flows	flow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	8 direction	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 direction	det
7	contrary	contrary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 direction	amod
8	direction	direction	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 flows	obl
9	to	to	ADP	_	11 other	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 other	det
11	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 direction	nmod
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 join	punct
13	so	so	SCONJ	ExtPos=SCONJ	18 join	mark
14	that	that	SCONJ	_	13 so	fixed
15	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	18 join	nsubj
16	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	18 join	aux
17	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	18 join	advmod
18	join	join	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 flows	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	flow	present	the one river			the contrary direction to the other			vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in direction=Location
2	not join	can	they						vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient

Option 4

A submerged wall separates the two channels

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 wall	det
2	submerged	submerge	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 wall	amod
3	wall	wall	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 separates	nsubj
4	separates	separate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 channels	det
6	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 channels	nummod
7	channels	channel	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 separates	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	submerge	participle							vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
2	separate	present	a submerged wall	the two channels					vn separate-23.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent channel=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/e4/