Exam question 3 · Record-breakers: the biggest and the smallest

State the number of cervical vertebrae, or neck bones, possessed by the giraffe, in comparison with that of a human being.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: state, possess · To what, where: number, comparison, cervical vertebrae

This is exam question 3 of lesson 186 «Record-breakers: the biggest and the smallest» 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	State	state	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 number	det
3	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 State	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 vertebrae	case
5	cervical	cervical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 vertebrae	amod
6	vertebrae	vertebra	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 number	nmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 bones	punct
8	or	or	CCONJ	_	10 bones	cc
9	neck	neck	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 bones	compound
10	bones	bone	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 vertebrae	conj
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 possessed	punct
12	possessed	possess	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 vertebrae	acl
13	by	by	ADP	_	15 giraffe	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 giraffe	det
15	giraffe	giraffe	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 possessed	obl
16	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 comparison	punct
17	in	in	ADP	_	18 comparison	case
18	comparison	comparison	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 State	obl
19	with	with	ADP	_	20 that	case
20	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	18 comparison	nmod
21	of	of	SCONJ	_	23 human	mark
22	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	23 human	det
23	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 comparison	acl
24	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	23 human	advcl
25	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 State	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	state speech: other	imperative	you not said here	the number of cervical vertebrae or neck bones		comparison with that			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent number=Topic
2	possess	participle		cervical vertebrae or neck bones not said here				by the giraffe	vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot

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

Seventy, being ten times that of a human being

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Seventy	seventy	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 that	nummod
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 that	punct
3	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 that	cop
4	ten	ten	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	5 times	nummod
5	times	time	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 that	obl:unmarked
6	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	root	root
7	of	of	SCONJ	_	9 human	mark
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 human	det
9	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 that	acl
10	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 human	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	gerund		that			time		tree rules

Option 2

One, considerably elongated

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	One	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 elongated	punct
3	considerably	considerably	ADV	_	4 elongated	advmod
4	elongated	elongate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 One	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	elongate	participle						considerably property	tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Seven, identical in number to that of a human being

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Seven	seven	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 that	nummod
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 identical	punct
3	identical	identical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 that	advmod
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 number	case
5	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 identical	obl
6	to	to	ADP	_	7 that	case
7	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	root	root
8	of	of	SCONJ	_	10 human	mark
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 human	det
10	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 that	acl
11	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	10 human	advcl

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

Fourteen, being twice that of a human being

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fourteen	fourteen	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	5 that	nummod
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 that	punct
3	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 that	cop
4	twice	twice	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	5 that	advmod
5	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	root	root
6	of	of	SCONJ	_	8 human	mark
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 human	det
8	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 that	acl
9	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 human	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	gerund		that				twice 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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/186-record-breakers-the-biggest-and-the-smallest/e3/