Exam question 2 · Cats: purring, whiskers, night eyes and grooming

Identify the principal function of the whiskers of the domestic cat.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify · To what, where: principal function

This is exam question 2 of lesson 197 «Cats: purring, whiskers, night eyes and grooming» 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 function	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 function	amod
4	function	function	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 whiskers	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 whiskers	det
7	whiskers	whisker	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 function	nmod
8	of	of	ADP	_	11 cat	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 cat	det
10	domestic	domestic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 cat	amod
11	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 whiskers	nmod
12	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal function of the whiskers of the domestic cat					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent function=Theme

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

To furnish tactile information concerning gaps and nearby prey

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 furnish	mark
2	furnish	furnish	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	tactile	tactile	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 information	amod
4	information	information	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 furnish	obj
5	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 gaps	amod
6	gaps	gap	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 information	obj
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 prey	cc
8	nearby	nearby	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 prey	amod
9	prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 information	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	furnish	to-infinitive		tactile information and nearby prey					vn fulfilling-13.4.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent information=Recipient
2	concern	gerund							vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer

Option 2

To regulate the temperature of the ears during the coldest months of the year

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 regulate	mark
2	regulate	regulate	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 temperature	det
4	temperature	temperature	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 regulate	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 ears	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 ears	det
7	ears	ear	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 temperature	nmod
8	during	during	ADP	_	11 months	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 months	det
10	coldest	cold	ADJ	Degree=Sup	11 months	amod
11	months	month	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 regulate	obl
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 year	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 year	det
14	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 months	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	regulate	to-infinitive		the temperature of the ears			month		tree rules

Option 3

To produce the sound of purring

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 produce	mark
2	produce	produce	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 sound	det
4	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 produce	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 purring	case
6	purring	purring	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 sound	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	produce	to-infinitive		the sound of purring					vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sound=Result

Option 4

To serve as decoration only

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 serve	mark
2	serve	serve	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	as	as	ADP	_	4 decoration	case
4	decoration	decoration	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 serve	obl
5	only	only	ADV	_	2 serve	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	serve	to-infinitive						as decoration	vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent as decoration=Attribute

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/197-cats-purring-whiskers-night-eyes-and-grooming/e2/