Exam question 3 · The twilight zone: barreleyes, lanternfish and the biggest…

Ascertain the reason for which numerous animals of the deep sea are of red colouration.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, numerous animals · What happens: ascertain, be · To what, where: reason

This is exam question 3 of lesson 175 «The twilight zone: barreleyes, lanternfish and the biggest daily journey on Earth» 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	DET	PronType=Int	7 animals	det
6	numerous	numerous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 animals	amod
7	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 colouration	nsubj
8	of	of	ADP	_	11 sea	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 sea	det
10	deep	deep	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 sea	amod
11	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 animals	nmod
12	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 colouration	cop
13	of	of	ADP	_	15 colouration	case
14	red	red	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 colouration	amod
15	colouration	colouration	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 reason	acl:relcl
16	.	.	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	is	present	which numerous animals of the deep sea					of red colouration	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 · ← Mova's choice

Such animals consume exclusively red food

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 animals	amod
2	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 consume	nsubj
3	consume	consume	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	exclusively	exclusively	ADV	_	3 consume	advmod
5	red	red	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 food	amod
6	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 consume	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	consume	present	Such animals	red food				exclusively property	vn consume-66 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent food=Asset

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Red light does not penetrate to such depths, so that red bodies appear black

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Red	red	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 light	amod
2	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 penetrate	nsubj
3	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 penetrate	aux
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 penetrate	advmod
5	penetrate	penetrate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	to	to	ADP	_	8 depths	case
7	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 depths	amod
8	depths	depth	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 penetrate	obl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 appear	punct
10	so	so	SCONJ	ExtPos=SCONJ	14 appear	mark
11	that	that	SCONJ	_	10 so	fixed
12	red	red	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 bodies	amod
13	bodies	body	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 appear	nsubj
14	appear	appear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 penetrate	conj
15	black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 appear	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not penetrate	present · do-support	Red light					to such depths	vn poke-19 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	appear	present	red bodies					black property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

The red pigment retains heat in cold water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 pigment	det
2	red	red	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 pigment	amod
3	pigment	pigment	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 retains	nsubj
4	retains	retain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	heat	heat	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 retains	obj
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 water	case
7	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 water	amod
8	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 retains	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	retain	present	the red pigment	heat		cold water			tree rules

Option 4

Red colouration attracts prey from the surface

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Red	red	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 colouration	amod
2	colouration	colouration	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 attracts	nsubj
3	attracts	attract	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 attracts	obj
5	from	from	ADP	_	7 surface	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 surface	det
7	surface	surface	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 attracts	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	attract	present	Red colouration	prey		the surface			vn lure-59.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent prey=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/175-the-twilight-zone-barreleyes-lanternfish-and-the-biggest-daily-journey-on-earth/e3/