Exam question 2 · Horses and ponies: how they eat, see, sleep and live in he…

Identify the principal reason for which the horse grazes for the greater part of the day.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, horse · What happens: identify, graze · To what, where: principal reason

This is exam question 2 of lesson 207 «Horses and ponies: how they eat, see, sleep and live in herds» 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 grazes	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 horse	det
8	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 grazes	nsubj
9	grazes	graze	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl
10	for	for	ADP	_	13 part	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 part	det
12	greater	great	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	13 part	amod
13	part	part	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 grazes	obl
14	of	of	ADP	_	16 day	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 day	det
16	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 part	nmod
17	.	.	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	graze	present	the horse					for the principal reason; for the greater part of the day	vn dine-39.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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 animal is required to keep pasture short

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 required	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 required	aux:pass
4	required	require	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 keep	mark
6	keep	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 required	xcomp
7	pasture	pasture	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 keep	obj
8	short	short	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 keep	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	require	present · passive		the animal					vn order-58.3-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic
2	keep	to-infinitive		pasture				short property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pasture=Theme

Option 2

Grazing serves solely to sharpen the teeth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Grazing	graze	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	serves	serve	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Grazing	obj
3	solely	solely	ADV	_	1 Grazing	advmod
4	to	to	PART	_	5 sharpen	mark
5	sharpen	sharpen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Grazing	advcl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 teeth	det
7	teeth	tooth	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 sharpen	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	graze	gerund		serves				solely property	vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent serve=Experiencer
2	sharpen	to-infinitive		the teeth					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent tooth=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The stomach is of small capacity and requires a near-continuous passage of food

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 stomach	det
2	stomach	stomach	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 capacity	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 capacity	cop
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 capacity	case
5	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 capacity	amod
6	capacity	capacity	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 requires	cc
8	requires	require	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 capacity	conj
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 passage	det
10	near	near	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 continuous	amod
11	-	-	PUNCT	_	10 near	punct
12	continuous	continuous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 passage	amod
13	passage	passage	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 requires	obj
14	of	of	ADP	_	15 food	case
15	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 passage	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	present	the stomach		of small capacity	tree rules
2	require	present	the stomach not said here	a continuous passage of food		vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme passage=Precondition
3	pass		food			nom passage «act intransitive»: of=agent

Option 4

Grass contains no nourishment whatsoever, so vast quantities must be consumed to survive

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Grass	grass	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 contains	nsubj
2	contains	contain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 nourishment	det
4	nourishment	nourishment	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 contains	obj
5	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	2 contains	advmod
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 consumed	punct
7	so	so	ADV	_	12 consumed	advmod
8	vast	vast	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 quantities	amod
9	quantities	quantity	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 consumed	nsubj:pass
10	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 consumed	aux
11	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	12 consumed	aux:pass
12	consumed	consume	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 contains	conj
13	to	to	PART	_	14 survive	mark
14	survive	survive	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 consumed	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	contain	present	Grass	no nourishment	whatsoever property	vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot nourishment=Theme
2	consume	must · passive		vast quantities		vn consume-66 «NP V NP»: subject=Asset
3	survive	to-infinitive				vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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/207-horses-and-ponies-how-they-eat-see-sleep-and-live-in-herds/e2/