Exam question 2 · The Congo river: tigerfish, the deepest river, lungfish an…

Identify the principal means by which the elephantnose fish perceives its surroundings in turbid water.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, principal, elephantnose fish · What happens: identify, mean, perceive · To what, where: surroundings, turbid water

This is exam question 2 of lesson 160 «The Congo river: tigerfish, the deepest river, lungfish and hidden birds» 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	3 principal	det
3	principal	principal	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 means	nsubj
4	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Identify	ccomp
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 perceives	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 fish	det
8	elephantnose	elephantnose	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 fish	compound
9	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 perceives	nsubj
10	perceives	perceive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 means	parataxis
11	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 surroundings	nmod:poss
12	surroundings	surroundings	NOUN	Number=Ptan	10 perceives	obj
13	in	in	ADP	_	15 water	case
14	turbid	turbid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 water	amod
15	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 perceives	obl
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	mean	present	the principal			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
3	perceive	present	the elephantnose fish	fish's surroundings	turbid water	vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer surroundings=Stimulus

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

Vision of exceptional acuity in darkness

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Vision	vision	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	of	of	ADP	_	4 acuity	case
3	exceptional	exceptional	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 acuity	amod
4	acuity	acuity	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Vision	nmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 darkness	case
6	darkness	darkness	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 acuity	nmod

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

Option 2

The emission of high-pitched calls and the detection of their echoes from the riverbed

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 emission	det
2	emission	emission	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	7 calls	case
4	high	high	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 pitched	compound
5	-	-	PUNCT	_	4 high	punct
6	pitched	pitch	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 calls	amod
7	calls	call	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 emission	nmod
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 detection	cc
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 detection	det
10	detection	detection	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 calls	conj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 echoes	case
12	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 echoes	nmod:poss
13	echoes	echo	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 detection	nmod
14	from	from	ADP	_	16 riverbed	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 riverbed	det
16	riverbed	riverbed	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 echoes	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	roles by
1	pitch	participle		vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	emit		pitched calls and the detection of calls's echoes from the riverbed	nom emission «act transitive»: of=patient
3	detect		calls's echoes from the riverbed	nom detection «cognition transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

Contact with the riverbed by means of its fins

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Contact	contact	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 means	nsubj
2	with	with	ADP	_	4 riverbed	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 riverbed	det
4	riverbed	riverbed	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Contact	nmod
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 means	case
6	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 fins	case
8	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 fins	nmod:poss
9	fins	fin	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 means	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	Contact with the riverbed					of Contact's fins	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The generation of weak electric fields and the detection of their alteration

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 generation	det
2	generation	generation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 fields	case
4	weak	weak	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 fields	amod
5	electric	electric	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 fields	amod
6	fields	field	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 generation	nmod
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 detection	cc
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 detection	det
9	detection	detection	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 fields	conj
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 alteration	case
11	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 alteration	nmod:poss
12	alteration	alteration	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 detection	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	detect			fields's alteration					nom detection «cognition transitive»: of=patient
2	alter		fields = field						nom alteration «event transitive»: poss=agent

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/160-the-congo-river/e2/