Exam question 2 · Amazon giants and tall tales: anacondas, caimans, electric…

Identify the principal reason for which the electric eel may leap from the water against a threatening animal.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, electric eel · What happens: identify, leap, threaten · To what, where: principal reason, water

This is exam question 2 of lesson 158 «Amazon giants and tall tales: anacondas, caimans, electric eels and the candiru» 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	11 leap	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 eel	det
8	electric	electric	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 eel	amod
9	eel	eel	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 leap	nsubj
10	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 leap	aux
11	leap	leap	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 reason	parataxis
12	from	from	ADP	_	14 water	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 water	det
14	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 leap	obl
15	against	against	ADP	_	18 animal	case
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 animal	det
17	threatening	threaten	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	18 animal	amod
18	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 leap	obl
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	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	leap	may	the electric eel		the water	for the principal reason; against a threatening animal	vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from water=Trajectory
3	threaten	gerund					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer

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

The eel thereby obtains a breath of air

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 eel	det
2	eel	eel	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 obtains	nsubj
3	thereby	thereby	ADV	_	4 obtains	advmod
4	obtains	obtain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 breath	det
6	breath	breath	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 obtains	obj
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 air	case
8	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 breath	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	obtain	present	the eel	a breath of air				thereby property	vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset breath=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

The eel thereby bites the animal with its teeth and holds it fast until it ceases entirely to struggle

The tree, 19 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 eel	det
2	eel	eel	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 bites	nsubj
3	thereby	thereby	ADV	_	4 bites	advmod
4	bites	bite	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 animal	det
6	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 bites	obj
7	with	with	ADP	_	9 teeth	case
8	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 teeth	nmod:poss
9	teeth	tooth	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 bites	obl
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 holds	cc
11	holds	hold	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 bites	conj
12	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 holds	obj
13	fast	fast	ADV	Degree=Pos	11 holds	advmod
14	until	until	SCONJ	_	16 ceases	mark
15	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 ceases	nsubj
16	ceases	cease	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 holds	advcl
17	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	16 ceases	advmod
18	to	to	PART	_	19 struggle	mark
19	struggle	struggle	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	16 ceases	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	bite	present	the eel	the animal	with eel's teeth; thereby property	vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent animal=Patient with tooth=Instrument
2	hold	present	the eel not said here	eel	fast property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme
3	cease	present	eel		entirely property	vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality
4	struggle	to-infinitive	eel not said here			vn battle-36.4 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The discharge thereby passes directly into the animal rather than dispersing through the water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 discharge	det
2	discharge	discharge	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 passes	nsubj
3	thereby	thereby	ADV	_	4 passes	advmod
4	passes	pass	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	directly	directly	ADV	_	4 passes	advmod
6	into	into	ADP	_	8 animal	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 animal	det
8	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 passes	obl
9	rather	rather	ADV	ExtPos=CCONJ	11 dispersing	cc
10	than	than	ADP	_	9 rather	fixed
11	dispersing	disperse	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 passes	conj
12	through	through	ADP	_	14 water	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 water	det
14	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 dispersing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pass	present	the discharge					into the animal; directly, thereby property	vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme into animal=Initial_Location
2	disperse	gerund	the discharge not said here			the water			vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 4

The eel thereby escapes into the forest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 eel	det
2	eel	eel	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 escapes	nsubj
3	thereby	thereby	ADV	_	4 escapes	advmod
4	escapes	escape	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	into	into	ADP	_	7 forest	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 forest	det
7	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 escapes	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	escape	present	the eel			the forest		thereby property	vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme into forest=Initial_Location

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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