Exam question 1 · Australia's venomous animals and why few people die

Identify the principal reason for which the inland taipan, notwithstanding the toxicity of its venom, has scarcely ever bitten a human being.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, notwithstand, have, bite · To what, where: principal reason, toxicity, human

This is exam question 1 of lesson 166 «Australia's venomous animals and why few people die» 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 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	9 taipan	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 taipan	nsubj
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 taipan	det
8	inland	inland	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 taipan	amod
9	taipan	taipan	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 reason	nmod
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 notwithstanding	punct
11	notwithstanding	notwithstand	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 Identify	advcl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 toxicity	det
13	toxicity	toxicity	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 notwithstanding	obj
14	of	of	ADP	_	16 venom	case
15	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 venom	nmod:poss
16	venom	venom	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 toxicity	nmod
17	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 has	punct
18	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Identify	parataxis
19	scarcely	scarcely	ADV	_	21 bitten	advmod
20	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	21 bitten	advmod
21	bitten	bite	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	18 has	xcomp
22	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	23 human	det
23	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	21 bitten	obj
24	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	21 bitten	advcl
25	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason		for the inland taipan	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	notwithstand	gerund	you not said here	the toxicity of toxicity's venom			tree rules
3	have	present					tree rules
4	bite	participle		a human	ever	scarcely property	vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent human=Patient

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 devoid of fangs and therefore entirely incapable of biting

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 devoid	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 devoid	cop
3	devoid	devoid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 fangs	case
5	fangs	fang	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 devoid	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 incapable	cc
7	therefore	therefore	ADV	_	9 incapable	advmod
8	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	9 incapable	advmod
9	incapable	incapable	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 devoid	conj
10	of	of	ADP	_	11 biting	case
11	biting	biting	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 incapable	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					of fangs; devoid property	tree rules

Option 2

Its venom is harmless to human beings and dangerous only to mice

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	2 venom	nmod:poss
2	venom	venom	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 harmless	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 harmless	cop
4	harmless	harmless	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 beings	case
6	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 beings	amod
7	beings	being	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 harmless	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 dangerous	cc
9	dangerous	dangerous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 harmless	conj
10	only	only	ADV	_	12 mice	advmod
11	to	to	ADP	_	12 mice	case
12	mice	mouse	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 harmless	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Its venom					to human beings; to mice; harmless property	tree rules
2	be		Its venom not said here						tree rules

Option 3

It is active exclusively during the winter

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 active	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 active	cop
3	active	active	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	exclusively	exclusively	ADV	_	3 active	advmod
5	during	during	ADP	_	7 winter	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 winter	det
7	winter	winter	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 active	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It				winter	active, exclusively property	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It is of a retiring disposition and inhabits remote desert regions

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	6 disposition	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 disposition	cop
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 disposition	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 disposition	det
5	retiring	retire	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 disposition	amod
6	disposition	disposition	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 inhabits	cc
8	inhabits	inhabit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 disposition	conj
9	remote	remote	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 regions	amod
10	desert	desert	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 regions	compound
11	regions	region	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 inhabits	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	retire	gerund				vn resign-10.11-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	is	present	It		of a retiring disposition	tree rules
3	inhabit	present		remote desert regions		tree rules

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/166-australias-venomous-animals-and-why-few-people-die/e1/