Exam question 4 · The Congo river: tigerfish, the deepest river, lungfish an…

Ascertain the reason for which the hippopotamus progresses along the riverbed rather than swimming.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, hippopotamus · What happens: ascertain, progress, swim · To what, where: reason

This is exam question 4 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	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	8 progresses	obl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 hippopotamus	det
7	hippopotamus	hippopotamus	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 progresses	nsubj
8	progresses	progress	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	acl
9	along	along	ADP	_	11 riverbed	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 riverbed	det
11	riverbed	riverbed	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 progresses	obl
12	rather	rather	ADV	ExtPos=CCONJ	14 swimming	cc
13	than	than	ADP	_	12 rather	fixed
14	swimming	swim	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 progresses	conj
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the reason		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	progress	present	the hippopotamus		for the reason; along the riverbed	vn entity_specific_cos-45.5 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
3	swim	gerund	the hippopotamus not said here			vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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 right answer

Its great weight causes it to sink, and it is unable to swim in the proper sense

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 weight	nmod:poss
2	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 weight	amod
3	weight	weight	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 causes	nsubj
4	causes	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 causes	obj
6	to	to	PART	_	7 sink	mark
7	sink	sink	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 causes	xcomp
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 unable	punct
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 unable	cc
10	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 unable	nsubj
11	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 unable	cop
12	unable	unable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 causes	conj
13	to	to	PART	_	14 swim	mark
14	swim	swim	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 unable	xcomp
15	in	in	ADP	_	18 sense	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 sense	det
17	proper	proper	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 sense	amod
18	sense	sense	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 swim	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	cause	present	Its great weight	it			tree rules
2	sink	to-infinitive					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
3	is	present	it			unable property	tree rules
4	swim	to-infinitive			the proper sense		vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in sense=Trajectory

Option 2

It pursues fish upon the riverbed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 pursues	nsubj
2	pursues	pursue	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pursues	obj
4	upon	upon	ADP	_	6 riverbed	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 riverbed	det
6	riverbed	riverbed	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pursues	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pursue	present	It	fish		the riverbed			vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent fish=Theme upon riverbed=Trajectory

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

It is pursued upon the surface by crocodiles

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 pursued	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 pursued	aux:pass
3	pursued	pursue	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	upon	upon	ADP	_	6 surface	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 surface	det
6	surface	surface	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 pursued	obl
7	by	by	ADP	_	8 crocodiles	case
8	crocodiles	crocodile	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 pursued	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pursue	present · passive	crocodiles	It		the surface			vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent subject=Theme upon surface=Trajectory

Option 4

It avoids the warmth of the surface water and remains in the cool mud at all times

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 avoids	nsubj
2	avoids	avoid	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 warmth	det
4	warmth	warmth	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 avoids	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 water	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 water	det
7	surface	surface	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 water	compound
8	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 warmth	nmod
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 remains	cc
10	remains	remain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 avoids	conj
11	in	in	ADP	_	14 mud	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 mud	det
13	cool	cool	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 mud	amod
14	mud	mud	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 remains	obl
15	at	at	ADP	_	17 times	case
16	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	17 times	det
17	times	time	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 remains	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	avoid	present	It	the warmth of the surface water					vn avoid-52 «NP V NP.location»: agent=Agent warmth=Location
2	remain	present				the cool mud	time		vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in mud=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/160-the-congo-river/e4/