Exam question 2 · Caves: bat clouds, blind fish, the olm, glowworms and a se…
Ascertain the reason for which certain cave fish have lost their eyes.
Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, certain cave fish · What happens: ascertain, lose · To what, where: reason, eyes
This is exam question 2 of lesson 179 «Caves: bat clouds, blind fish, the olm, glowworms and a sealed cave» 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 | 10 lost | obl |
| 6 | certain | certain | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 fish | amod |
| 7 | cave | cave | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 fish | compound |
| 8 | fish | fish | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 lost | nsubj |
| 9 | have | have | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 10 lost | aux |
| 10 | lost | lose | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part | 3 reason | acl:relcl |
| 11 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 12 eyes | nmod:poss |
| 12 | eyes | eye | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 lost | obj |
| 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 | lose | present · perfect | certain cave fish | fish's eyes | for the reason | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eye=Eventuality |
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 cave water dissolves eyes
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 water | det |
| 2 | cave | cave | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 water | compound |
| 3 | water | water | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 dissolves | nsubj |
| 4 | dissolves | dissolve | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 5 | eyes | eye | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 dissolves | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | dissolve | present | the cave water | eyes | vn break-45.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eye=Patient |
Option 2
The eyes were removed by predators
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 2 eyes | det |
| 2 | eyes | eye | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 removed | nsubj:pass |
| 3 | were | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin | 4 removed | aux:pass |
| 4 | removed | remove | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 5 | by | by | ADP | _ | 6 predators | case |
| 6 | predators | predator | NOUN | Number=Plur | 4 removed | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | remove | past · passive | predators | the eyes | vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme |
Option 3 · ← Mova's choice
They are born without eyes for one generation only
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | They | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 born | nsubj:pass |
| 2 | are | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 born | aux:pass |
| 3 | born | bear | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 4 | without | without | ADP | _ | 5 eyes | case |
| 5 | eyes | eye | NOUN | Number=Plur | 3 born | obl |
| 6 | for | for | ADP | _ | 8 generation | case |
| 7 | one | one | NUM | NumForm=Word NumType=Card | 8 generation | nummod |
| 8 | generation | generation | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 born | obl |
| 9 | only | only | ADV | _ | 3 born | advmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | bear | present · passive | They | for one generation | without eyes | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Stimulus for generation=Attribute |
Option 4 · ✓ the right answer
Eyes confer no benefit in total darkness and their maintenance consumes energy
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eyes | eye | NOUN | Number=Plur | 2 confer | nsubj |
| 2 | confer | confer | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 3 | no | no | DET | PronType=Neg | 4 benefit | det |
| 4 | benefit | benefit | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 confer | obj |
| 5 | in | in | ADP | _ | 7 darkness | case |
| 6 | total | total | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 7 darkness | amod |
| 7 | darkness | darkness | NOUN | Number=Sing | 2 confer | obl |
| 8 | and | and | CCONJ | _ | 11 consumes | cc |
| 9 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 10 maintenance | nmod:poss |
| 10 | maintenance | maintenance | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 consumes | nsubj |
| 11 | consumes | consume | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 2 confer | conj |
| 12 | energy | energy | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 consumes | obj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | confer | present | Eyes | no benefit | total darkness | tree rules | |||
| 2 | consume | present | Eyes's maintenance | energy | vn consume-66 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent energy=Asset | ||||
| 3 | maintain | Eyes = eye | nom maintenance «act transitive»: poss=agent |
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/179-caves-bat-clouds-blind-fish-the-olm-glowworms-and-a-sealed-cave/e2/