Exam question 2 · Hamsters, gerbils and pet rats and mice

Identify the principal reason for which the gerbil consumes comparatively little water.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, gerbil · What happens: identify, consume · To what, where: principal reason, little water

This is exam question 2 of lesson 202 «Hamsters, gerbils and pet rats and mice» 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	9 consumes	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 gerbil	det
8	gerbil	gerbil	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 consumes	nsubj
9	consumes	consume	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl
10	comparatively	comparatively	ADV	_	9 consumes	advmod
11	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 water	amod
12	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 consumes	obj
13	.	.	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 reason					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	consume	present	the gerbil	little water				for the principal reason; comparatively property	vn consume-66 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent water=Asset

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 drinks exclusively during hibernation

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 drinks	nsubj
2	drinks	drink	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	exclusively	exclusively	ADV	_	2 drinks	advmod
4	during	during	ADP	_	5 hibernation	case
5	hibernation	hibernation	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 drinks	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drink	present	It				during hibernation	exclusively property	vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

It is adapted to desert conditions and conserves water by producing dry droppings and little urine

The tree, 16 words

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 adapted	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 adapted	aux:pass
3	adapted	adapt	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 desert	mark
5	desert	desert	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 adapted	xcomp
6	conditions	condition	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 desert	obj
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 water	cc
8	conserves	conserve	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 water	compound
9	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 conditions	conj
10	by	by	SCONJ	_	11 producing	mark
11	producing	produce	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 desert	advcl
12	dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 droppings	amod
13	droppings	dropping	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 producing	obj
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 urine	cc
15	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 urine	amod
16	urine	urine	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 droppings	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	roles by
1	adapt	present · passive	It	tree rules
2	desert	to-infinitive	conditions and conserves water	vn leave-51.2-1 «NP V NP.initial_location»: agent=Theme condition=Source
3	produce	gerund	dry droppings and little urine	vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dropping=Result

Option 3

It obtains all water from cheese

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 obtains	nsubj
2	obtains	obtain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	4 water	det
4	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 obtains	obj
5	from	from	ADP	_	6 cheese	case
6	cheese	cheese	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 obtains	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	obtain	present	It	all water		cheese			vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent water=Theme from cheese=Source

Option 4

It is incapable of swallowing liquids, its throat being too narrow for any drink

The tree, 14 words

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	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 liquids	case
5	swallowing	swallow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 liquids	amod
6	liquids	liquid	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 incapable	nmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 narrow	punct
8	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 throat	nmod:poss
9	throat	throat	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 narrow	nsubj
10	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	12 narrow	cop
11	too	too	ADV	_	12 narrow	advmod
12	narrow	narrow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 incapable	conj
13	for	for	ADP	_	15 drink	case
14	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	15 drink	det
15	drink	drink	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 narrow	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	incapable	of swallowing liquids	tree rules
2	swallow	gerund				vn hiccup-40.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	is	gerund	incapable's throat		for any drink; narrow 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/202-hamsters-gerbils-and-pet-rats-and-mice/e2/