Exam question 4 · The Australian outback: red kangaroos, emus, thorny devils…

Ascertain the origin of the dingo upon the Australian continent.

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

This is exam question 4 of lesson 165 «The Australian outback: red kangaroos, emus, thorny devils and runaway camels and toads» 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 origin	det
3	origin	origin	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 dingo	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 dingo	det
6	dingo	dingo	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 origin	nmod
7	upon	upon	ADP	_	10 continent	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 continent	det
9	Australian	Australian	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 continent	amod
10	continent	continent	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 dingo	nmod
11	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the origin of the dingo upon the Australian continent					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent origin=Topic

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 was introduced by sheep farmers in the twentieth century

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 introduced	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 introduced	aux:pass
3	introduced	introduce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	6 farmers	case
5	sheep	sheep	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 farmers	compound
6	farmers	farmer	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 introduced	obl:agent
7	in	in	ADP	_	10 century	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 century	det
9	twentieth	twentieth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 century	amod
10	century	century	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 introduced	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	introduce	past · passive	sheep farmers	It			century		vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient

Option 2

It evolved from the kangaroo

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 evolved	nsubj
2	evolved	evolve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	from	from	ADP	_	5 kangaroo	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 kangaroo	det
5	kangaroo	kangaroo	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 evolved	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	evolve	past	It					from the kangaroo	vn grow-26.2.1 «NP.product V PP.patient»: agent=Product from kangaroo=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

It arrived in the company of people several thousand years ago

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 arrived	nsubj
2	arrived	arrive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 company	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 company	det
5	company	company	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 arrived	obl
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 people	case
7	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 company	nmod
8	several	several	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 thousand	amod
9	thousand	thousand	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	10 years	nummod
10	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 ago	obl:unmarked
11	ago	ago	ADV	_	2 arrived	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	arrive	past	It			the company of people		ago property	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

It descended from the marsupial wolves of the dinosaur age

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 descended	nsubj
2	descended	descend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	from	from	ADP	_	6 wolves	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 wolves	det
5	marsupial	marsupial	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 wolves	compound
6	wolves	wolf	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 descended	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	10 age	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 age	det
9	dinosaur	dinosaur	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 age	compound
10	age	age	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 wolves	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	descend	past	It			the marsupial wolves of the dinosaur age			vn meander-47.7-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from wolf=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/165-the-australian-outback-kangaroos-emus-thorny-devils-and-runaway-toads/e4/