Exam question 3 · Myths and cartoons put right: Tom and Jerry, elephants and…

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the memory of the goldfish?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: memory

This is exam question 3 of lesson 191 «Myths and cartoons put right: Tom and Jerry, elephants and mice, ostriches and more» 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 memory	det
10	memory	memory	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 goldfish	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 goldfish	det
13	goldfish	goldfish	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 memory	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 memory of the goldfish				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 · ← Mova's choice

It is incapable of retaining any information beyond three seconds

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	3 incapable	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 incapable	cop
3	incapable	incapable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	of	of	SCONJ	_	5 retaining	mark
5	retaining	retain	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 incapable	advcl
6	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	7 information	det
7	information	information	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 retaining	obj
8	beyond	beyond	ADP	_	10 seconds	case
9	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	10 seconds	nummod
10	seconds	second	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 retaining	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					incapable property	tree rules
2	retain	gerund		any information			second		tree rules

Option 2

It retains information exclusively concerning colour

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 retains	nsubj
2	retains	retain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	information	information	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 retains	obj
4	exclusively	exclusively	ADV	_	5 concerning	advmod
5	concerning	concerning	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 colour	amod
6	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 information	appos

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	retain	present	It	information					tree rules

Option 3

It retains information only in darkness

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 retains	nsubj
2	retains	retain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	information	information	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 retains	obj
4	only	only	ADV	_	6 darkness	advmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 darkness	case
6	darkness	darkness	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 retains	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	retain	present	It	information		darkness			tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It is capable of retaining learned behaviour for a period of months

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	3 capable	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 capable	cop
3	capable	capable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	of	of	SCONJ	_	5 retaining	mark
5	retaining	retain	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 capable	advcl
6	learned	learn	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 behaviour	amod
7	behaviour	behaviour	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 retaining	obj
8	for	for	ADP	_	10 period	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 period	det
10	period	period	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 retaining	obl
11	of	of	ADP	_	12 months	case
12	months	month	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 period	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	present	It		capable property	tree rules
2	retain	gerund		learned behaviour	for a period of months	tree rules
3	learn	participle				vn learn-14-1 «NP V»: agent=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/191-myths-and-cartoons-put-right/e3/