Exam question 4 · Electric senses: electric eels, sharks, the platypus bill…

Ascertain the reason for which electric senses occur predominantly among aquatic animals.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, electric senses · What happens: ascertain, occur · To what, where: reason

This is exam question 4 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	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	8 occur	obl
6	electric	electric	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 senses	amod
7	senses	sens	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 occur	nsubj
8	occur	occur	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	acl:relcl
9	predominantly	predominantly	ADV	_	8 occur	advmod
10	among	among	ADP	_	12 animals	case
11	aquatic	aquatic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 animals	amod
12	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 occur	obl
13	.	.	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 reason					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	occur	present	electric senses					for the reason; among aquatic animals; predominantly property	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme among animal=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

Electric fields cannot be generated by any animal upon dry land

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Electric	electric	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 fields	amod
2	fields	field	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 generated	nsubj:pass
3	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 generated	aux
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	6 generated	advmod
5	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 generated	aux:pass
6	generated	generate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	by	by	ADP	_	9 animal	case
8	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	9 animal	det
9	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 generated	obl
10	upon	upon	ADP	_	12 land	case
11	dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 land	amod
12	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 generated	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not generate	can · passive	any animal	Electric fields				upon dry land	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Water conducts electricity far more effectively than air

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 conducts	nsubj
2	conducts	conduct	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	electricity	electricity	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 conducts	obj
4	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	5 more	advmod
5	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	6 effectively	advmod
6	effectively	effectively	ADV	_	2 conducts	advmod
7	than	than	ADP	_	8 air	case
8	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 effectively	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	conduct	present	Water	electricity				effectively property	vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent electricity=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Light is entirely absent from all waters

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 absent	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 absent	cop
3	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	4 absent	advmod
4	absent	absent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	from	from	ADP	_	7 waters	case
6	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 waters	det
7	waters	water	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 absent	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Light			all waters		absent, entirely property	tree rules

Option 4

Aquatic animals possess no other senses

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Aquatic	aquatic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 animals	amod
2	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 possess	nsubj
3	possess	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	6 senses	det
5	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 senses	amod
6	senses	sens	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 possess	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	Aquatic animals	no other senses					vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot sens=Theme

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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