Exam question 4 · Australia's forests and Tasmania: devils, cassowaries, lyr…

Ascertain the faculty for which the male lyrebird is chiefly renowned.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, male lyrebird · What happens: ascertain, be · To what, where: faculty

This is exam question 4 of lesson 167 «Australia's forests and Tasmania: devils, cassowaries, lyrebirds and cube-shaped droppings» 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 faculty	det
3	faculty	faculty	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 renowned	obl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 lyrebird	det
7	male	male	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 lyrebird	amod
8	lyrebird	lyrebird	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 renowned	nsubj
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 renowned	cop
10	chiefly	chiefly	ADV	_	11 renowned	advmod
11	renowned	renowned	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 faculty	acl:relcl
12	.	.	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 faculty					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent faculty=Topic
2	is	present	the male lyrebird					for the faculty; chiefly, renowned property	tree rules

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

Gliding between trees by means of membranes of skin

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Gliding	glide	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 means	csubj
2	between	between	ADP	_	3 trees	case
3	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Gliding	obl
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 means	case
5	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 membranes	case
7	membranes	membrane	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 means	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 skin	case
9	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 membranes	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	glide	gerund				trees			vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme between tree=Trajectory
2	mean	present	Gliding					of membranes of skin	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent

Option 2

The construction of bowers decorated with blue objects

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 construction	det
2	construction	construction	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 bowers	case
4	bowers	bower	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 construction	nmod
5	decorated	decorate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 bowers	acl
6	with	with	ADP	_	8 objects	case
7	blue	blue	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 objects	amod
8	objects	object	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 decorated	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	decorate	participle		bowers not said here				with blue objects	vn illustrate-25.3 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent with object=Theme
2	construct			bowers					nom construction «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

Breaking through sea ice with its head

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Breaking	break	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	through	through	ADP	_	4 ice	case
3	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 ice	compound
4	ice	ice	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Breaking	obl
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 head	case
6	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 head	nmod:poss
7	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Breaking	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	break	gerund				sea ice		with ice's head	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through ice=Location

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

The imitation of the calls of other birds and of human sounds

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 imitation	det
2	imitation	imitation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 calls	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 calls	det
5	calls	call	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 imitation	nmod
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 birds	case
7	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 birds	amod
8	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 calls	nmod
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 sounds	cc
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 sounds	case
11	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 sounds	amod
12	sounds	sound	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 birds	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	imitate			the calls of other birds and human sounds					nom imitation «cognition transitive»: of=patient
2	call			other birds and human sounds					nom call «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/167-australias-forests-and-tasmania-devils-cassowaries-and-lyrebirds/e4/