Exam question 4 · Working dogs: guide, sniffer, sheep, rescue and helper dogs

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the location of a person buried beneath snow.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts · What happens: select, establish, concern, bury · To what, where: response, location, person, snow

This is exam question 4 of lesson 196 «Working dogs: guide, sniffer, sheep, rescue and helper dogs» 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	11 location	det
11	location	location	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 person	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 person	det
14	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 location	nmod
15	buried	bury	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	14 person	acl
16	beneath	beneath	ADP	_	17 snow	case
17	snow	snow	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 buried	obl
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	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 location of a person			vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus location=Experiencer
4	bury	participle		a person not said here	snow		vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent beneath snow=Destination

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

Herding dogs are exclusively employed for this purpose

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Herding	herd	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 dogs	amod
2	dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 employed	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 employed	aux:pass
4	exclusively	exclusively	ADV	_	5 employed	advmod
5	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	for	for	ADP	_	8 purpose	case
7	this	this	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	8 purpose	det
8	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 employed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	herd	gerund							vn shake-22.3-2 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient
2	employ	present · passive		Herding dogs				for this purpose; exclusively property	vn use-105.1 «NP V NP PP.predicate»: subject=Theme for purpose=Eventuality

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Dogs are unable to detect scent through snow

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 unable	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 unable	cop
3	unable	unable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 detect	mark
5	detect	detect	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 unable	xcomp
6	scent	scent	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 detect	obj
7	through	through	ADP	_	8 snow	case
8	snow	snow	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 detect	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Dogs					unable property	tree rules
2	detect	to-infinitive	Dogs not said here	scent		snow			vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer scent=Stimulus

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

A trained rescue dog may detect the person by scent more rapidly than a line of searchers

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 dog	det
2	trained	train	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 dog	amod
3	rescue	rescue	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 dog	compound
4	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 detect	nsubj
5	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 detect	aux
6	detect	detect	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 person	det
8	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 detect	obj
9	by	by	ADP	_	10 scent	case
10	scent	scent	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 detect	obl
11	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	12 rapidly	advmod
12	rapidly	rapidly	ADV	_	6 detect	advmod
13	than	than	ADP	_	15 line	case
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 line	det
15	line	line	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 rapidly	obl
16	of	of	ADP	_	17 searchers	case
17	searchers	searcher	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 line	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	train	participle							vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	detect	may	a trained rescue dog	the person				by scent; rapidly property	vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer person=Stimulus

Option 4

Only a line of searchers using sight alone can locate such a person beneath the snow

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Only	only	ADV	_	3 line	advmod
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 line	det
3	line	line	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 locate	nsubj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 searchers	case
5	searchers	searcher	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 line	nmod
6	using	use	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 searchers	acl
7	sight	sight	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 using	obj
8	alone	alone	ADV	_	6 using	advmod
9	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 locate	aux
10	locate	locate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
11	such	such	DET	PronType=Ind	13 person	det:predet
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 person	det
13	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 locate	obj
14	beneath	beneath	ADP	_	16 snow	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 snow	det
16	snow	snow	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 locate	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	use	gerund	searchers not said here	sight				alone property	vn eat-39.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sight=Patient
2	locate	can	a line of searchers	such person				beneath the snow	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.

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