Exam question 2 · Reading a dog: tails, play bows, growls and staying safe

Identify the principal reason for which the punishment of a growling dog is to be avoided.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, avoid, punish · To what, where: principal reason, punishment, growling dog

This is exam question 2 of lesson 194 «Reading a dog: tails, play bows, growls and staying safe» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	16 avoided	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 punishment	det
8	punishment	punishment	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 avoided	nsubj:pass
9	of	of	ADP	_	12 dog	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 dog	det
11	growling	growling	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 dog	compound
12	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 punishment	nmod
13	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 avoided	aux:pass
14	to	to	PART	_	16 avoided	mark
15	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	16 avoided	aux:pass
16	avoided	avoid	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl:relcl
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	avoid	present · passive	you not said here	the punishment of a growling dog	for the principal reason	vn avoid-52 «NP V NP.location»: subject=Location
3	punish			a growling dog		nom punishment «act 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

Growling constitutes an expression of gratitude

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Growling	growling	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 constitutes	nsubj
2	constitutes	constitute	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 expression	det
4	expression	expression	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 constitutes	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 gratitude	case
6	gratitude	gratitude	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 expression	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	constitute	present	Growling	a expression of gratitude					vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme expression=Pivot

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The animal may thereby learn to bite without prior warning

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 animal	det
2	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 learn	nsubj
3	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 learn	aux
4	thereby	thereby	ADV	_	5 learn	advmod
5	learn	learn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 bite	mark
7	bite	bite	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 learn	xcomp
8	without	without	ADP	_	10 warning	case
9	prior	prior	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 warning	amod
10	warning	warning	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 bite	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	learn	may	the animal					thereby property	vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	bite	to-infinitive	the animal not said here					without prior warning	vn swat-18.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Growling is invariably a symptom of disease of the throat or the teeth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Growling	growling	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 symptom	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 symptom	cop
3	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	5 symptom	advmod
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 symptom	det
5	symptom	symptom	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 disease	case
7	disease	disease	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 symptom	nmod
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 throat	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 throat	det
10	throat	throat	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 symptom	nmod
11	or	or	CCONJ	_	13 teeth	cc
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 teeth	det
13	teeth	tooth	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 symptom	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	Growling	a symptom or the teeth				of disease; of the throat; invariably property	tree rules

Option 4

Punishment renders the dog incapable of barking

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Punishment	punishment	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 renders	nsubj
2	renders	render	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 incapable	det
4	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 incapable	compound
5	incapable	incapable	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 renders	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 barking	case
7	barking	barking	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 incapable	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	render	present	Punishment	the dog incapable of barking					vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent incapable=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/194-reading-a-dog-tails-play-bows-growls-and-staying-safe/e2/