Exam question 3 · Cats: purring, whiskers, night eyes and grooming

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the vision of the cat in conditions of low illumination.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts · What happens: select, establish, concern, condition · To what, where: response, vision, conditions, low illumination

This is exam question 3 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	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 vision	det
11	vision	vision	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 cat	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 cat	det
14	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 vision	nmod
15	in	in	ADP	_	16 conditions	case
16	conditions	condition	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 concerning	obl
17	of	of	ADP	_	19 illumination	case
18	low	low	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 illumination	amod
19	illumination	illumination	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 conditions	nmod
20	.	.	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 vision of the cat	conditions of low illumination		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus vision=Experiencer
4	condition			low illumination			nom condition «state 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 · ✓ the right answer

A reflective layer permits vision in a fraction of the light required by humans, though not in total darkness

The tree, 19 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 vision	det
2	reflective	reflective	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 vision	amod
3	layer	layer	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 permits	compound
4	permits	permit	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 vision	compound
5	vision	vision	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 fraction	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 fraction	det
8	fraction	fraction	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 vision	nmod
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 light	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 light	det
11	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 fraction	nmod
12	required	require	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 light	acl
13	by	by	ADP	_	14 humans	case
14	humans	human	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 required	obl:agent
15	,	,	PUNCT	_	20 darkness	punct
16	though	though	SCONJ	_	20 darkness	mark
17	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	20 darkness	advmod
18	in	in	ADP	_	20 darkness	case
19	total	total	ADJ	Degree=Pos	20 darkness	amod
20	darkness	darkness	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 vision	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	require	participle		the light not said here					vn require-103-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Theme

Option 2

The eyes of the cat emit light of their own

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 eyes	det
2	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 emit	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 cat	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 cat	det
5	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 eyes	nmod
6	emit	emit	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 emit	obj
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 own	case
9	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 own	nmod:poss
10	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 emit	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	emit	infinitive	the eyes of the cat	light				of eyes's own	vn substance_emission-43.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Source light=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

The cat perceives perfectly in total darkness, its eyes requiring no light whatsoever to form an image

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cat	det
2	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 perceives	nsubj
3	perceives	perceive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	perfectly	perfectly	ADV	_	3 perceives	advmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 darkness	case
6	total	total	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 darkness	amod
7	darkness	darkness	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 perceives	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 eyes	punct
9	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 eyes	nmod:poss
10	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 darkness	appos
11	requiring	require	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 eyes	acl
12	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	13 light	det
13	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 requiring	obj
14	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	11 requiring	advmod
15	to	to	PART	_	16 form	mark
16	form	form	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 perceives	advcl
17	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 image	det
18	image	image	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 form	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	perceive	present	the cat		total darkness	perfectly property	vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer
2	require	gerund	cat's eyes not said here	no light		whatsoever property	vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme light=Precondition
3	form	to-infinitive	the cat not said here	a image			vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location image=Theme

Option 4

The cat is entirely blind after sunset

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cat	det
2	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 blind	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 blind	cop
4	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	5 blind	advmod
5	blind	blind	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	after	after	ADP	_	7 sunset	case
7	sunset	sunset	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 blind	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the cat				sunset	blind, entirely property	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/197-cats-purring-whiskers-night-eyes-and-grooming/e3/