Exam question 4 · How close are apes to us?

Select the principal reason for which the great apes are unable to articulate words in the manner of humans.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, great apes · What happens: select, be, articulate · To what, where: principal reason, words, manner

This is exam question 4 of lesson 17 «How close are apes to us?» 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	Select	select	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 Select	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 unable	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 apes	det
8	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 apes	amod
9	apes	ape	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 unable	nsubj
10	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 unable	cop
11	unable	unable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	acl
12	to	to	PART	_	13 articulate	mark
13	articulate	articulate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 unable	xcomp
14	words	word	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 articulate	obj
15	in	in	ADP	_	17 manner	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 manner	det
17	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 articulate	obl
18	of	of	ADP	_	19 humans	case
19	humans	human	NOUN	Number=Plur	17 manner	nmod
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason			vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	is	present	the great apes			for the principal reason; unable property	tree rules
3	articulate speech: other	to-infinitive	the great apes not said here	words	the manner of humans		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent word=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

They possess no capacity whatsoever for learning, and therefore cannot acquire speech

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 possess	nsubj
2	possess	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 capacity	det
4	capacity	capacity	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 possess	obj
5	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	2 possess	advmod
6	for	for	ADP	_	7 learning	case
7	learning	learning	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 possess	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 acquire	punct
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 acquire	cc
10	therefore	therefore	ADV	_	13 acquire	advmod
11	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 acquire	aux
12	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	13 acquire	advmod
13	acquire	acquire	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 possess	conj
14	speech	speech	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 acquire	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	They	no capacity				for learning; whatsoever property	vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot capacity=Theme
2	not acquire	can	They not said here	speech				therefore property	vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset speech=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Their throat, tongue and control of breathing are differently constituted

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 throat	nmod:poss
2	throat	throat	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 constituted	nsubj
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 tongue	punct
4	tongue	tongue	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 throat	conj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 control	cc
6	control	control	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 throat	conj
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 breathing	case
8	breathing	breathing	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 control	nmod
9	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 constituted	aux:pass
10	differently	differently	ADV	_	11 constituted	advmod
11	constituted	constitute	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	constitute	present · passive		Their throat and tongue and control of breathing				differently property	vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Pivot

Option 3

Their sense of hearing is wholly absent

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 sense	nmod:poss
2	sense	sense	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 absent	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 hearing	case
4	hearing	hearing	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 sense	nmod
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 absent	cop
6	wholly	wholly	ADV	_	7 absent	advmod
7	absent	absent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Their sense of hearing					absent, wholly property	tree rules
2	sense		Their = they	hearing					nom sense «cognition transitive»: poss=agent of=patient

Option 4

They possess no vocal apparatus of any kind

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 possess	nsubj
2	possess	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	5 apparatus	det
4	vocal	vocal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 apparatus	amod
5	apparatus	apparatus	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 possess	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 kind	case
7	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	8 kind	det
8	kind	kind	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 apparatus	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	They	no vocal apparatus of any kind					vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot apparatus=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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