Exam question 2 · Parrots: talkers, nutcrackers and long lives

Identify the principal consideration which ought to precede the acquisition of a large parrot.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, principal consideration · What happens: identify, precede, acquire · To what, where: principal consideration, acquisition, large parrot

This is exam question 2 of lesson 206 «Parrots: talkers, nutcrackers and long lives» 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 consideration	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 consideration	amod
4	consideration	consideration	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 precede	nsubj
6	ought	ought	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 precede	aux
7	to	to	PART	_	8 precede	mark
8	precede	precede	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 consideration	acl:relcl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 acquisition	det
10	acquisition	acquisition	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 precede	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	14 parrot	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 parrot	det
13	large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 parrot	amod
14	parrot	parrot	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 acquisition	nmod
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal consideration	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent consideration=Theme
2	precede	ought	the principal consideration	the acquisition of a large parrot	vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme acquisition=Co-Theme
3	acquire			a large parrot	nom acquisition «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

The parrot will assume responsibility for its own care

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 parrot	det
2	parrot	parrot	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 assume	nsubj
3	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 assume	aux
4	assume	assume	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	responsibility	responsibility	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 assume	obj
6	for	for	ADP	_	9 care	case
7	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 care	nmod:poss
8	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 care	amod
9	care	care	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 assume	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	assume	future	the parrot	responsibility				for parrot's own care	vn adopt-93.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent responsibility=Theme
2	care		parrot						nom care «act intransitive»: poss=agent

Option 2

Large parrots invariably perish within two years

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 parrots	amod
2	parrots	parrot	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 perish	nsubj
3	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	4 perish	advmod
4	perish	perish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	within	within	ADP	_	7 years	case
6	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 years	nummod
7	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 perish	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	perish	present	Large parrots				year	invariably property	vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The animal may live beyond sixty years and thus outlive its owner

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	4 live	nsubj
3	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 live	aux
4	live	live	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	beyond	beyond	ADP	_	7 years	case
6	sixty	sixty	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 years	nummod
7	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 live	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 outlive	cc
9	thus	thus	ADV	_	10 outlive	advmod
10	outlive	outlive	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 live	conj
11	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 owner	nmod:poss
12	owner	owner	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 outlive	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	live	may	the animal				year		vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	outlive	infinitive	the animal not said here	animal's owner				thus property	tree rules

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

Large parrots require neither company nor occupation

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 parrots	amod
2	parrots	parrot	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 require	nsubj
3	require	require	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	neither	neither	CCONJ	Polarity=Neg	5 company	cc:preconj
5	company	company	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 require	obj
6	nor	nor	CCONJ	Polarity=Neg	7 occupation	cc
7	occupation	occupation	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 company	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	require	present	Large parrots	company nor occupation					vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme company=Precondition

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/206-parrots-talkers-nutcrackers-and-long-lives/e2/