Exam question 4 · Antarctica: emperor huddles, krill, clear-blooded fish and…

Ascertain the reason for which Adélie penguins construct their nests from stones.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, Adélie penguins · What happens: ascertain, construct · To what, where: reason, nests, stones

This is exam question 4 of lesson 170 «Antarctica: emperor huddles, krill, clear-blooded fish and stone-stealing penguins» 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 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 construct	obl
6	Adélie	Adélie	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 penguins	compound
7	penguins	penguin	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 construct	nsubj
8	construct	construct	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	acl:relcl
9	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 nests	nmod:poss
10	nests	nest	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 construct	obj
11	from	from	ADP	_	12 stones	case
12	stones	stone	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 construct	obl
13	.	.	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 reason					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	construct	present	Adélie penguins	penguins's nests		stones		for the reason	vn create-26.4 «NP V NP PP.material»: agent=Agent nest=Result from stone=Material

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 sharpening of their beaks

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 sharpening	det
2	sharpening	sharpening	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 beaks	case
4	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 beaks	nmod:poss
5	beaks	beak	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 sharpening	nmod

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

Option 2

The storage of food for the winter

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 storage	det
2	storage	storage	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 food	case
4	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 storage	nmod
5	for	for	ADP	_	7 winter	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 winter	det
7	winter	winter	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 storage	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	store			food				for the winter	nom storage «act transitive»: of=patient for=obl

Option 3

The concealment of the eggs from leopard seals

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 concealment	det
2	concealment	concealment	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 eggs	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 eggs	det
5	eggs	egg	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 concealment	nmod
6	from	from	ADP	_	8 seals	case
7	leopard	leopard	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 seals	compound
8	seals	seal	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 eggs	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	conceal			the eggs from leopard seals					nom concealment «state transitive»: of=patient

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

The elevation of the eggs above melting snow and water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 elevation	det
2	elevation	elevation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 eggs	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 eggs	det
5	eggs	egg	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 elevation	nmod
6	above	above	ADP	_	8 snow	case
7	melting	melt	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 snow	amod
8	snow	snow	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 eggs	nmod
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 water	cc
10	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 snow	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	melt	gerund							vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
2	elevate			the eggs above melting snow and water					nom elevation «event 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/170-antarctica-emperor-huddles-krill-clear-blooded-fish-and-stone-stealing-penguins/e4/