Exam question 3 · Strange discoveries: living fossils, hidden apes and anima…

Ascertain the meaning of the term discovery as applied to animals known beforehand to local inhabitants.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, apply, know, mean · To what, where: meaning, animals, term discovery

This is exam question 3 of lesson 190 «Strange discoveries: living fossils, hidden apes and animals found in drawers» 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 meaning	det
3	meaning	meaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 discovery	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 discovery	det
6	term	term	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 discovery	compound
7	discovery	discovery	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 meaning	nmod
8	as	as	SCONJ	_	9 applied	mark
9	applied	apply	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Ascertain	advcl
10	to	to	ADP	_	11 animals	case
11	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 applied	obl
12	known	know	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 animals	acl
13	beforehand	beforehand	ADV	_	12 known	advmod
14	to	to	ADP	_	16 inhabitants	case
15	local	local	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 inhabitants	amod
16	inhabitants	inhabitant	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 known	obl
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the meaning of the term discovery		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent meaning=Topic
2	apply	participle	you not said here		to animals	vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	know	participle		animals not said here	to local inhabitants; beforehand property	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
4	mean			the term discovery		nom meaning «communication transitive»: of=patient

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 · ✓ the right answer

That scientists described and named the animal for the first time

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	2 scientists	det
2	scientists	scientist	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 described	nsubj
3	described	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 named	cc
5	named	name	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 described	conj
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 animal	det
7	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 named	obj
8	for	for	ADP	_	11 time	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 time	det
10	first	first	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	11 time	amod
11	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 named	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	describe	past	that scientists						vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent
2	name	past	that scientists not said here	the animal			time		vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent animal=Theme

Option 2

That it was brought from another planet

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	4 brought	nsubj:pass
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 brought	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 brought	aux:pass
4	brought	bring	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	from	from	ADP	_	7 planet	case
6	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	7 planet	det
7	planet	planet	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 brought	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	bring	past · passive		That		another planet			vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.initial_location»: subject=Theme from planet=Initial_Location

Option 3

That the animal came into existence at that moment and not before

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 animal	det
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 animal	det
3	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 came	nsubj
4	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	into	into	ADP	_	6 existence	case
6	existence	existence	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 came	obl
7	at	at	ADP	_	9 moment	case
8	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	9 moment	det
9	moment	moment	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 came	obl
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 before	cc
11	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	12 before	advmod
12	before	before	ADV	_	9 moment	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	come	past	that animal			existence	moment		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme into existence=Initial_Location

Option 4

That no person had ever seen it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	That	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	3 person	det
2	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	3 person	det
3	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 seen	nsubj:pass
4	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 seen	aux
5	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	6 seen	advmod
6	seen	see	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 seen	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	see	past · perfect · passive		that person			ever		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/190-strange-discoveries-living-fossils-hidden-apes-and-animals-found-in-drawers/e3/