Exam question 1 · Rats and mice in the city, and the elephant and mouse myth

Identify the principal reason for which the rat is capable of passing through an aperture of very small diameter.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, rat · What happens: identify, be, pass · To what, where: principal reason, aperture

This is exam question 1 of lesson 222 «Rats and mice in the city, and the elephant and mouse myth» 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	10 capable	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 rat	det
8	rat	rat	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 capable	nsubj
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 capable	cop
10	capable	capable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	acl
11	of	of	SCONJ	_	12 passing	mark
12	passing	pass	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	10 capable	advcl
13	through	through	ADP	_	15 aperture	case
14	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 aperture	det
15	aperture	aperture	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 passing	obl
16	of	of	ADP	_	19 diameter	case
17	very	very	ADV	_	18 small	advmod
18	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 diameter	amod
19	diameter	diameter	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 aperture	nmod
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	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	is	present	the rat			for the principal reason; capable property	tree rules
3	pass	gerund	the rat not said here		a aperture of small diameter		vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme through aperture=Location

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 able to detach its limbs temporarily

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 able	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 able	cop
4	able	able	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 detach	mark
6	detach	detach	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 able	xcomp
7	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 limbs	nmod:poss
8	limbs	limb	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 detach	obj
9	temporarily	temporarily	ADV	_	6 detach	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the animal					able property	tree rules
2	detach	to-infinitive	the animal not said here	animal's limbs				temporarily property	vn disassemble-23.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent limb=Patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The ribs are flexible, so that only the skull determines the passage

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 ribs	det
2	ribs	rib	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 flexible	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 flexible	cop
4	flexible	flexible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 determines	punct
6	so	so	ADV	_	11 determines	advmod
7	that	that	SCONJ	_	11 determines	mark
8	only	only	ADV	_	10 skull	advmod
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 skull	det
10	skull	skull	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 determines	nsubj
11	determines	determine	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 flexible	conj
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 passage	det
13	passage	passage	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 determines	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the ribs					flexible property	tree rules
2	determine	present	the skull	the passage					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent passage=Topic

Option 3

The skeleton is composed entirely of cartilage

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 skeleton	det
2	skeleton	skeleton	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 composed	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 composed	aux:pass
4	composed	compose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	4 composed	advmod
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 cartilage	case
7	cartilage	cartilage	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 composed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	compose	present · passive		the skeleton				of cartilage; entirely property	vn create-26.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Result

Option 4

The fur may be compressed to a fraction of its thickness

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 fur	det
2	fur	fur	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 compressed	nsubj:pass
3	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 compressed	aux
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 compressed	aux:pass
5	compressed	compress	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	to	to	ADP	_	8 fraction	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 fraction	det
8	fraction	fraction	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 compressed	obl
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 thickness	case
10	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 thickness	nmod:poss
11	thickness	thickness	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 fraction	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	compress	may · passive		the fur				to a fraction of fur's thickness result	vn bend-45.2 «NP V NP PP.result»: subject=Patient to fraction=Result

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/222-rats-and-mice-in-the-city-and-the-elephant-and-mouse-myth/e1/