Exam question 2 · Coral reef builders: polyps, bleaching, sand from parrotfi…

Identify the principal cause of the phenomenon designated coral bleaching.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, principal cause · What happens: identify, designate, cause · To what, where: coral bleaching, phenomenon

This is exam question 2 of lesson 172 «Coral reef builders: polyps, bleaching, sand from parrotfish and giant clams» 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 cause	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 cause	amod
4	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 designated	nsubj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 phenomenon	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 phenomenon	det
7	phenomenon	phenomenon	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 cause	nmod
8	designated	designate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 Identify	parataxis
9	coral	coral	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 bleaching	amod
10	bleaching	bleaching	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 designated	obj
11	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here		vn empathize-88.2 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
2	designate	past	the principal cause of the phenomenon	coral bleaching	vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bleaching=Theme
3	cause			the phenomenon	nom cause «event transitive»: of=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

The consumption of coral by parrotfish

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 consumption	det
2	consumption	consumption	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 coral	case
4	coral	coral	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 consumption	nmod
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 parrotfish	case
6	parrotfish	parrotfish	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 consumption	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	consume		parrotfish	coral					nom consumption «act transitive»: of=patient by=agent

Option 2

The deposition of salt crystals upon the reef

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 deposition	det
2	deposition	deposition	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 crystals	case
4	salt	salt	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 crystals	compound
5	crystals	crystal	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 deposition	nmod
6	upon	upon	ADP	_	8 reef	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 reef	det
8	reef	reef	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 crystals	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	depose		salt crystals upon the reef						nom deposition «process intransitive»: of=agent

Option 3

An excess of sunlight in water of moderate temperature during the winter months

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 excess	det
2	excess	excess	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 sunlight	case
4	sunlight	sunlight	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 excess	nmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 water	case
6	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 excess	nmod
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 temperature	case
8	moderate	moderate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 temperature	amod
9	temperature	temperature	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 water	nmod
10	during	during	ADP	_	13 months	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 months	det
12	winter	winter	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 months	compound
13	months	month	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 excess	nmod

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

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The expulsion of symbiotic algae consequent upon excessive water temperature

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 expulsion	det
2	expulsion	expulsion	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 consequent	compound
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 algae	case
4	symbiotic	symbiotic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 algae	amod
5	algae	alga	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 expulsion	nmod
6	consequent	consequent	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	upon	upon	ADP	_	10 temperature	case
8	excessive	excessive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 temperature	amod
9	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 temperature	compound
10	temperature	temperature	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 consequent	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	expel			symbiotic algae					nom expulsion «act 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/172-coral-reef-builders-polyps-bleaching-sand-from-parrotfish-and-giant-clams/e2/