Exam question 2 · Electric senses: electric eels, sharks, the platypus bill…

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the foraging of the platypus beneath the water.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts, platypus · What happens: select, establish, concern, forage · To what, where: response, foraging

This is exam question 2 of lesson 231 «Electric senses: electric eels, sharks, the platypus bill and charged bees» 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 foraging	det
11	foraging	foraging	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 platypus	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 platypus	det
14	platypus	platypus	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 foraging	nmod
15	beneath	beneath	ADP	_	17 water	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 water	det
17	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 platypus	nmod
18	.	.	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 foraging of the platypus beneath the water		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus foraging=Experiencer
4	forage		the platypus beneath the water			nom foraging «act intransitive»: of=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

It locates prey solely by its sense of smell

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	2 locates	nsubj
2	locates	locate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 locates	obj
4	solely	solely	ADV	_	2 locates	advmod
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 sense	case
6	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 sense	nmod:poss
7	sense	sense	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 locates	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 smell	case
9	smell	smell	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 sense	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	locate	present	It	prey				by prey's sense of smell; solely property	tree rules
2	sense		prey	smell					nom sense «cognition transitive»: poss=agent of=patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

It locates prey by means of electric and tactile receptors in its bill

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	2 locates	nsubj
2	locates	locate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 locates	obj
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 means	case
5	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 locates	parataxis
6	of	of	ADP	_	10 receptors	case
7	electric	electric	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 receptors	amod
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 tactile	cc
9	tactile	tactile	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 electric	conj
10	receptors	receptor	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 means	obl
11	in	in	ADP	_	13 bill	case
12	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 bill	nmod:poss
13	bill	bill	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 receptors	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	locate	present	It	prey		tree rules
2	mean	present			of electric receptors in prey's bill	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
3	bill		prey			nom bill «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

It detects prey by echolocation

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	2 detects	nsubj
2	detects	detect	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 detects	obj
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 echolocation	case
5	echolocation	echolocation	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 detects	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	detect	present	It	prey				by echolocation	vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer prey=Stimulus

Option 4

It relies principally upon acute underwater vision

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	2 relies	nsubj
2	relies	rely	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	principally	principally	ADV	_	2 relies	advmod
4	upon	upon	ADP	_	7 vision	case
5	acute	acute	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 vision	amod
6	underwater	underwater	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 vision	compound
7	vision	vision	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 relies	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	rely	present	It					upon acute underwater vision; principally property	vn rely-70 «NP V PP.theme S_ING»: agent=Agent

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/231-electric-senses-eels-sharks-the-platypus-and-charged-bees/e2/