Exam question 4 · Chickens: eggs, pecking order and living dinosaurs

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the colouration of eggshells.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, established facts · What happens: select, establish, concern · To what, where: response, colouration

This is exam question 4 of lesson 212 «Chickens: eggs, pecking order and living dinosaurs» 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 colouration	det
11	colouration	colouration	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 eggshells	case
13	eggshells	eggshell	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 colouration	nmod
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	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 colouration of eggshells		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus colouration=Experiencer

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

Shell colour is determined by breed and leaves the contents unaltered

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Shell	shell	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 colour	compound
2	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 determined	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 determined	aux:pass
4	determined	determine	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 breed	case
6	breed	breed	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 determined	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 leaves	cc
8	leaves	leave	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 determined	conj
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 contents	det
10	contents	contents	NOUN	Number=Ptan	8 leaves	obj
11	unaltered	unaltered	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 leaves	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	determine	present · passive	breed	Shell colour					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Topic
2	leave	present	breed not said here	the contents				unaltered property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent contents=Theme

Option 2

Shell colour is determined by the weather

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Shell	shell	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 colour	compound
2	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 determined	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 determined	aux:pass
4	determined	determine	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 weather	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 weather	det
7	weather	weather	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 determined	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	determine	present · passive	the weather	Shell colour					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Topic

Option 3

White shells are produced by bleaching

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	White	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 shells	amod
2	shells	shell	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 produced	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 produced	aux:pass
4	produced	produce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 bleaching	case
6	bleaching	bleaching	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 produced	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	produce	present · passive	bleaching	White shells					vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Result

Option 4

Brown shells denote superior nourishment

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Brown	brown	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 shells	amod
2	shells	shell	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 denote	nsubj
3	denote	denote	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	superior	superior	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 nourishment	amod
5	nourishment	nourishment	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 denote	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	denote	present	Brown shells	superior nourishment					vn indicate-78 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot nourishment=Topic

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/212-chickens-eggs-pecking-order-and-living-dinosaurs/e4/