Exam question 4 · Raccoons, opossums and skunks

Ascertain the relationship between the brushtail possum of Australia and the opossum of the Americas.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain · To what, where: relationship

This is exam question 4 of lesson 224 «Raccoons, opossums and skunks» 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 relationship	det
3	relationship	relationship	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	between	between	ADP	_	7 possum	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 possum	det
6	brushtail	brushtail	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 possum	compound
7	possum	possum	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 relationship	nmod
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 Australia	case
9	Australia	Australia	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 possum	nmod
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 opossum	cc
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 opossum	det
12	opossum	opossum	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 relationship	conj
13	of	of	ADP	_	15 Americas	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 Americas	det
15	Americas	AMERICAS	PROPN	Number=Plur	12 opossum	nmod
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the relationship and the opossum of the Americas				between the brushtail possum of Australia	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent relationship=Topic

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

They are a single species distributed across two continents

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 species	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 species	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 species	det
4	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 species	amod
5	species	species	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	distributed	distribute	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 species	acl
7	across	across	ADP	_	9 continents	case
8	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	9 continents	nummod
9	continents	continent	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 distributed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	They	a single species					tree rules
2	distribute	participle		a single species not said here		two continents			vn contribute-13.2-1 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent

Option 2

The former is a rodent, whereas the latter is a marsupial

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 rodent	det
2	former	former	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 rodent	amod
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 rodent	cop
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 rodent	det
5	rodent	rodent	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 marsupial	nsubj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 rodent	punct
7	whereas	whereas	SCONJ	_	9 latter	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 latter	det
9	latter	latter	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 rodent	nmod
10	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 marsupial	cop
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 marsupial	det
12	marsupial	marsupial	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present		the former rodent				whereas the latter	tree rules
2	is a	present	the former rodent	a marsupial					tree rules

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Both are marsupials, but they belong to different families

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	3 marsupials	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 marsupials	cop
3	marsupials	marsupial	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 belong	punct
5	but	but	CCONJ	_	7 belong	cc
6	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 belong	nsubj
7	belong	belong	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 marsupials	parataxis
8	to	to	ADP	_	10 families	case
9	different	different	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 families	amod
10	families	family	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 belong	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	Both	marsupials					tree rules
2	belong	present	marsupials = marsupial					to different families	vn attend-107.4-2 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme

Option 4

The latter was introduced to Australia, where it became the former

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 latter	det
2	latter	latter	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 introduced	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 introduced	aux:pass
4	introduced	introduce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	to	to	ADP	_	6 Australia	case
6	Australia	Australia	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 introduced	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 became	punct
8	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	10 became	advmod
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 became	nsubj
10	became	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 Australia	acl:relcl
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 former	det
12	former	former	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 became	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	introduce	past · passive		the latter	Australia				vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: subject=Patient to australia=Co-Patient
2	become	past	it					former property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

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.

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