Exam question 4 · Vents and trenches: tubeworms, iron snails, the Challenger…

Ascertain the reason for which the Mariana snailfish withstands the pressure prevailing at its depth.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, Mariana snailfish, pressure · What happens: ascertain, withstand, prevail · To what, where: reason, pressure, depth

This is exam question 4 of lesson 177 «Vents and trenches: tubeworms, iron snails, the Challenger Deep and life without sunlight» 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	9 withstands	obl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 snailfish	det
7	Mariana	Mariana	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 snailfish	compound
8	snailfish	snailfish	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 withstands	nsubj
9	withstands	withstand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	acl:relcl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 pressure	det
11	pressure	pressure	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 withstands	obj
12	prevailing	prevail	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	11 pressure	acl
13	at	at	ADP	_	15 depth	case
14	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 depth	nmod:poss
15	depth	depth	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 prevailing	obl
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the reason			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	withstand	present	the Mariana snailfish	the pressure		for the reason	tree rules
3	prevail	gerund	the pressure not said here		snailfish's depth		vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at depth=Location

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

It retains a large volume of air within its body

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 retains	nsubj
2	retains	retain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 volume	det
4	large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 volume	amod
5	volume	volume	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 retains	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 air	case
7	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 volume	nmod
8	within	within	ADP	_	10 body	case
9	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 body	nmod:poss
10	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 retains	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	retain	present	It	a large volume of air				within air's body	tree rules

Option 2

It ascends to shallow water daily

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 ascends	nsubj
2	ascends	ascend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 shallow	mark
4	shallow	shallow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 water	amod
5	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 ascends	obj
6	daily	daily	ADV	_	2 ascends	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascend	present	It	shallow water				daily property	vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme water=Trajectory

Option 3

Its body is enclosed in armour of iron

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 body	nmod:poss
2	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 enclosed	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 enclosed	aux:pass
4	enclosed	enclose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 armour	case
6	armour	armour	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 enclosed	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 iron	case
8	iron	iron	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 armour	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	enclose	present · passive		Its body		armour of iron			vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: subject=Co-Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Its skeleton is soft and its tissues are largely water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 skeleton	nmod:poss
2	skeleton	skeleton	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 soft	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 soft	cop
4	soft	soft	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 water	cc
6	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 tissues	nmod:poss
7	tissues	tissue	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 water	nsubj
8	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 water	cop
9	largely	largely	ADV	_	10 water	advmod
10	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 soft	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Its skeleton					soft property	tree rules
2	is a	present	skeleton's tissues	water				largely property	tree rules

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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