Exam question 4 · Record-breakers: the fastest and the slowest

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the trap-jaw ant.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts · What happens: select, establish, concern · To what, where: response, jaw ant

This is exam question 4 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	xcomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 facts	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 facts	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 facts	amod
8	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 facts	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 ant	det
11	trap	trap	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 jaw	compound
12	-	-	PUNCT	_	11 trap	punct
13	jaw	jaw	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 ant	compound
14	ant	ant	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response	consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the jaw ant		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus ant=Experiencer

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 is the slowest of all insects

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 slowest	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 slowest	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 slowest	det
4	slowest	slow	ADJ	Degree=Sup	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 insects	case
6	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 insects	det
7	insects	insect	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 slowest	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					of all insects; slow property	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Its jaws close faster than almost any other animal movement and may propel it into the air

The tree, 17 words

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 jaws	nmod:poss
2	jaws	jaw	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 close	nsubj
3	close	close	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	faster	fast	ADV	Degree=Cmp	3 close	advmod
5	than	than	ADP	_	10 movement	case
6	almost	almost	ADV	_	10 movement	advmod
7	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	10 movement	det
8	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 movement	amod
9	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 movement	compound
10	movement	movement	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 faster	obl
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 propel	cc
12	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 propel	aux
13	propel	propel	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 close	conj
14	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 propel	obj
15	into	into	ADP	_	17 air	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 air	det
17	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 propel	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	close	present	Its jaws					fast property	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
2	propel	may	Its jaws not said here	movement		the air			tree rules

Option 3

It flies by flapping its jaws

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 flies	nsubj
2	flies	fly	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	by	by	SCONJ	_	4 flapping	mark
4	flapping	flap	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 flies	advcl
5	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 jaws	nmod:poss
6	jaws	jaw	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 flapping	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fly	present	It						vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	flap	gerund		its jaws					vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent jaw=Patient

Option 4

It possesses no jaws

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 possesses	nsubj
2	possesses	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 jaws	det
4	jaws	jaw	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 possesses	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	It	no jaws					vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot jaw=Theme

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/185-record-breakers-the-fastest-and-the-slowest/e4/