Exam question 1 · Madagascar: chameleons, leaf-tailed geckos, tenrecs, baoba…

Identify the principal purposes for which the chameleon effects changes in its colouration.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, chameleon effects · What happens: identify, change · To what, where: principal purposes, colouration

This is exam question 1 of lesson 164 «Madagascar: chameleons, leaf-tailed geckos, tenrecs, baobabs and a moth Darwin predicted» 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 purposes	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 purposes	amod
4	purposes	purpose	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 changes	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 effects	det
8	chameleon	chameleon	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 effects	compound
9	effects	effect	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 changes	nsubj
10	changes	change	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Identify	parataxis
11	in	in	ADP	_	13 colouration	case
12	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 colouration	nmod:poss
13	colouration	colouration	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 changes	obl
14	.	.	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 purposes					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent purpose=Theme
2	change	present	the chameleon effects			its colouration			vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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 attraction of insect prey by means of flashing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 attraction	det
2	attraction	attraction	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 means	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 prey	case
4	insect	insect	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 prey	compound
5	prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 attraction	nmod
6	by	by	ADP	_	7 means	case
7	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 flashing	case
9	flashing	flashing	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 means	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	the attraction of insect prey					of flashing	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	attract			insect prey					nom attraction «phenomenon transitive»: of=patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

The exact reproduction of any pattern upon which the animal happens to rest, even a printed page

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 reproduction	det
2	exact	exact	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 reproduction	amod
3	reproduction	reproduction	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 pattern	case
5	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	6 pattern	det
6	pattern	pattern	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 reproduction	nmod
7	upon	upon	ADP	_	8 which	case
8	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 happens	obl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 animal	det
10	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 happens	nsubj
11	happens	happen	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 pattern	acl:relcl
12	to	to	PART	_	13 rest	mark
13	rest	rest	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 happens	xcomp
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 page	punct
15	even	even	ADV	_	18 page	advmod
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 page	det
17	printed	print	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	18 page	amod
18	page	page	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 reproduction	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	happen	present	the animal	upon any pattern	tree rules
2	rest	to-infinitive	the animal not said here		vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	print	participle			vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	reproduce		any pattern		nom reproduction «process intransitive»: of=agent

Option 3

Concealment from human observers exclusively

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Concealment	concealment	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	from	from	ADP	_	4 observers	case
3	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 observers	amod
4	observers	observer	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Concealment	nmod
5	exclusively	exclusively	ADV	_	4 observers	advmod

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

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The display of mood, communication with others and regulation of body temperature

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 display	det
2	display	display	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 mood	case
4	mood	mood	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 display	nmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 communication	punct
6	communication	communication	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 display	conj
7	with	with	ADP	_	8 others	case
8	others	other	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 communication	nmod
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 regulation	cc
10	regulation	regulation	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 display	conj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 temperature	case
12	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 temperature	compound
13	temperature	temperature	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 regulation	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	display			mood					nom display «communication transitive»: of=patient
2	regulate			body temperature					nom regulation «communication transitive»: of=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/164-madagascar-chameleons-geckos-tenrecs-baobabs-and-darwins-moth/e1/