Exam question 4 · Gulls: chip thieves, rain dances and salty water

Ascertain the reason for which a brown and speckled gull is commonly observed alongside grey and white adults.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, speckle, observe · To what, where: reason, brown gull

This is exam question 4 of lesson 223 «Gulls: chip thieves, rain dances and salty water» 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	13 observed	obl
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 gull	det
7	brown	brown	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 gull	amod
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 speckled	cc
9	speckled	speckle	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 brown	conj
10	gull	gull	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 observed	nsubj:pass
11	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 observed	aux:pass
12	commonly	commonly	ADV	_	13 observed	advmod
13	observed	observe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 reason	acl:relcl
14	alongside	alongside	ADP	_	18 adults	case
15	grey	grey	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 adults	amod
16	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 white	cc
17	white	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 grey	conj
18	adults	adult	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 observed	obl
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the reason		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	speckle	participle				vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme
3	observe	present · passive		a brown gull	for the reason; alongside grey adults; commonly property	vn investigate-35.4 «NP V NP.location PP.theme»: subject=Location for which=Theme

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 is an elderly bird whose plumage has faded with advancing age

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	5 bird	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 bird	cop
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 bird	det
4	elderly	elderly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 bird	amod
5	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	whose	whose	PRON	Poss=Yes PronType=Rel	7 plumage	nmod:poss
7	plumage	plumage	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 faded	nsubj
8	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 faded	aux
9	faded	fade	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	5 bird	acl:relcl
10	with	with	ADP	_	12 age	case
11	advancing	advancing	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 age	amod
12	age	age	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 faded	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a elderly bird					tree rules
2	fade	present · perfect	plumage				with advancing age		vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with age=Instrument

Option 2

It is an adult bird whose feathers have been soiled with mud

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	5 bird	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 bird	cop
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 bird	det
4	adult	adult	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 bird	amod
5	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	whose	whose	PRON	Poss=Yes PronType=Rel	7 feathers	nmod:poss
7	feathers	feather	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 soiled	nsubj:pass
8	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 soiled	aux
9	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	10 soiled	aux:pass
10	soiled	soil	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 bird	acl:relcl
11	with	with	ADP	_	12 mud	case
12	mud	mud	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 soiled	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a adult bird					tree rules
2	soil	present · perfect · passive		feathers				with mud	vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP PP.theme»: subject=Destination with mud=Theme

Option 3

It is a separate species which never acquires grey plumage

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	5 species	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 species	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 species	det
4	separate	separate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 species	amod
5	species	species	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 acquires	nsubj
7	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	8 acquires	advmod
8	acquires	acquire	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 species	acl:relcl
9	grey	grey	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 plumage	amod
10	plumage	plumage	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 acquires	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a separate species					tree rules
2	not acquire	present	a separate species	grey plumage					vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset plumage=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It is an immature bird which has not yet acquired adult plumage

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	5 bird	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 bird	cop
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 bird	det
4	immature	immature	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 bird	amod
5	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 acquired	nsubj:pass
7	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 acquired	aux
8	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	10 acquired	advmod
9	yet	yet	ADV	_	10 acquired	advmod
10	acquired	acquire	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 bird	acl:relcl
11	adult	adult	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 plumage	amod
12	plumage	plumage	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 acquired	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a immature bird					tree rules
2	not acquire	present · perfect · passive		a immature bird			yet		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/223-gulls-chip-thieves-rain-dances-and-salty-water/e4/