Exam question 3 · Reef giants and wanderers: whale sharks, mantas, dugongs a…

Ascertain the principal reason for which sea turtles are observed to ingest plastic bags.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, observe, ingest · To what, where: principal reason, sea turtles, plastic bags

This is exam question 3 of lesson 174 «Reef giants and wanderers: whale sharks, mantas, dugongs and sea turtles» 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	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 observed	obl
7	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 turtles	compound
8	turtles	turtle	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 observed	nsubj:pass
9	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 observed	aux:pass
10	observed	observe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl:relcl
11	to	to	PART	_	12 ingest	mark
12	ingest	ingest	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 observed	xcomp
13	plastic	plastic	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 bags	compound
14	bags	bag	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 ingest	obj
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	observe	present · passive		sea turtles	for the principal reason	tree rules
3	ingest	to-infinitive		plastic bags		vn absorb-39.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Goal bag=Theme

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

Plastic is a necessary component of their diet

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Plastic	plastic	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 component	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 component	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 component	det
4	necessary	necessary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 component	amod
5	component	component	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 diet	case
7	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 diet	nmod:poss
8	diet	diet	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 component	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	Plastic	a necessary component				of their diet	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The bags are mistaken for jellyfish, upon which certain turtles feed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 bags	det
2	bags	bag	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 mistaken	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 mistaken	aux:pass
4	mistaken	mistaken	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 jellyfish	case
6	jellyfish	jellyfish	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 mistaken	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 feed	punct
8	upon	upon	ADP	_	9 which	case
9	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 feed	obl
10	certain	certain	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 turtles	amod
11	turtles	turtle	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 feed	nsubj
12	feed	feed	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 mistaken	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	feed	present	certain turtles						vn gorge-39.6 «NP V PP.patient»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Ingestion occurs exclusively during sleep

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ingestion	ingestion	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 occurs	nsubj
2	occurs	occur	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	exclusively	exclusively	ADV	_	2 occurs	advmod
4	during	during	ADP	_	5 sleep	case
5	sleep	sleep	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 occurs	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	occur	present	Ingestion				during sleep	exclusively property	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

The bags are employed in the construction of nests

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 bags	det
2	bags	bag	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 employed	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 employed	aux:pass
4	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 construction	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 construction	det
7	construction	construction	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 employed	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 nests	case
9	nests	nest	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 construction	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	employ	present · passive		the bags		the construction of nests			vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
2	construct			nests					nom construction «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/174-reef-giants-and-wanderers-whale-sharks-mantas-dugongs-and-sea-turtles/e3/