Exam question 1 · Sumatra: the smallest tiger, the hairy rhino, the stinking…

Identify the principal characteristic distinguishing the Sumatran rhinoceros from the other rhinoceroses of Asia.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, principal characteristic · What happens: identify, distinguish · To what, where: principal characteristic, Sumatran rhinoceros

This is exam question 1 of lesson 162 «Sumatra: the smallest tiger, the hairy rhino, the stinking giant flower and the venomous loris» 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 characteristic	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 characteristic	amod
4	characteristic	characteristic	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	distinguishing	distinguish	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 characteristic	acl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 rhinoceros	det
7	Sumatran	Sumatran	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 rhinoceros	compound
8	rhinoceros	rhinoceros	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 distinguishing	obj
9	from	from	ADP	_	12 rhinoceroses	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 rhinoceroses	det
11	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 rhinoceroses	amod
12	rhinoceroses	rhinoceros	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 rhinoceros	nmod
13	of	of	ADP	_	14 Asia	case
14	Asia	Asia	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 rhinoceroses	nmod
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal characteristic					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent characteristic=Theme
2	distinguish	gerund	the principal characteristic not said here	the Sumatran rhinoceros				from the other rhinoceroses of Asia	vn distinguish-23.5-1 «NP V NP.theme PP.co-theme»: agent=Agent rhinoceros=Theme from rhinoceros=Co-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 · ← Mova's choice

It is entirely without hair

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	5 hair	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 hair	cop
3	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	5 hair	advmod
4	without	without	ADP	_	5 hair	case
5	hair	hair	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					without hair; entirely property	tree rules

Option 2

It alone possesses no horn whatsoever

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 possesses	nsubj
2	alone	alone	ADV	_	3 possesses	advmod
3	possesses	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	5 horn	det
5	horn	horn	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 possesses	obj
6	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	3 possesses	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	It	no horn				alone, whatsoever property	vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot horn=Theme

Option 3

It is the largest of all living rhinoceroses, being taller than an elephant

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	4 largest	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 largest	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 largest	det
4	largest	large	ADJ	Degree=Sup	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 rhinoceroses	case
6	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	8 rhinoceroses	det
7	living	live	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 rhinoceroses	amod
8	rhinoceroses	rhinoceros	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 largest	obl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 taller	punct
10	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	11 taller	cop
11	taller	tall	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	4 largest	amod
12	than	than	ADP	_	14 elephant	case
13	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 elephant	det
14	elephant	elephant	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 taller	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	present	It	of all living rhinoceroses; large property	tree rules
2	live	gerund			vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	is	gerund		than a elephant; tall property	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It alone among the Asian rhinoceroses possesses two horns

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	7 possesses	nsubj
2	alone	alone	ADV	_	7 possesses	advmod
3	among	among	ADP	_	6 rhinoceroses	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 rhinoceroses	det
5	Asian	Asian	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 rhinoceroses	amod
6	rhinoceroses	rhinoceros	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 alone	obl
7	possesses	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	9 horns	nummod
9	horns	horn	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 possesses	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	It	two horns				alone property	vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot horn=Theme

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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