Exam question 3 · Record-breakers: the fastest and the slowest

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the slowness of the sloth?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: slowness

This is exam question 3 of lesson 185 «Record-breakers: the fastest and the slowest» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 slowness	det
10	slowness	slowness	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 sloth	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 sloth	det
13	sloth	sloth	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 slowness	nmod
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the slowness of the sloth				of the following statements; accurately property	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

It is a consequence of permanent sleep

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	4 consequence	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 consequence	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 consequence	det
4	consequence	consequence	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 sleep	case
6	permanent	permanent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 sleep	amod
7	sleep	sleep	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 consequence	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a consequence				of permanent sleep	tree rules

Option 2

It is the result of injury in all individuals

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	4 result	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 result	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 result	det
4	result	result	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 injury	case
6	injury	injury	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 result	nmod
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 individuals	case
8	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	9 individuals	det
9	individuals	individual	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 result	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	the result		all individuals		of injury	tree rules

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

It enables the sloth to pursue prey

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 enables	nsubj
2	enables	enable	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 sloth	det
4	sloth	sloth	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 enables	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 pursue	mark
6	pursue	pursue	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 enables	advcl
7	prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 pursue	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	enable	present	It	the sloth					tree rules
2	pursue	to-infinitive		prey					vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent prey=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It conserves energy on a diet of little energy and renders the animal less conspicuous to hawks

The tree, 17 words

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 conserves	nsubj
2	conserves	conserve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	energy	energy	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 conserves	obj
4	on	on	ADP	_	6 diet	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 diet	det
6	diet	diet	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 conserves	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 energy	case
8	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 energy	amod
9	energy	energy	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 diet	nmod
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 renders	cc
11	renders	render	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 conserves	conj
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 animal	det
13	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 renders	obj
14	less	less	ADV	Degree=Cmp	15 conspicuous	advmod
15	conspicuous	conspicuous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 renders	xcomp
16	to	to	ADP	_	17 hawks	case
17	hawks	hawk	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 renders	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	conserve	present	It	energy		a diet of little energy			tree rules
2	render	present		the animal	hawks			conspicuous property	vn give-13.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent animal=Theme to hawk=Recipient

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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