Exam question 2 · Animal minds: the octopus, escape artist and puzzle solver

Identify the principal reason for which an octopus is able to pass through an aperture of very small dimensions.

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

This is exam question 2 of lesson 234 «Animal minds: the octopus, escape artist and puzzle solver» 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 able	obl
7	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 octopus	det
8	octopus	octopus	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 able	nsubj
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 able	cop
10	able	able	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	acl
11	to	to	PART	_	12 pass	mark
12	pass	pass	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 able	xcomp
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 pass	obl
16	of	of	ADP	_	19 dimensions	case
17	very	very	ADV	_	18 small	advmod
18	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 dimensions	amod
19	dimensions	dimension	NOUN	Number=Plur	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	a octopus			for the principal reason; able property	tree rules
3	pass	to-infinitive	a octopus not said here		a aperture of small dimensions		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

Its capacity to dissolve its beak at will and grow it again

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 capacity	nmod:poss
2	capacity	capacity	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 dissolve	nsubj
3	to	to	PART	_	4 dissolve	mark
4	dissolve	dissolve	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 beak	nmod:poss
6	beak	beak	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 dissolve	obj
7	at	at	ADP	_	8 will	case
8	will	will	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 dissolve	advcl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 grow	cc
10	grow	grow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 dissolve	conj
11	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 grow	obj
12	again	again	ADV	_	10 grow	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dissolve	to-infinitive	Its capacity	capacity's beak					vn break-45.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent beak=Patient
2	grow	infinitive	Its capacity not said here	beak			again		vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location it=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The absence of bones, the beak being its only hard part

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 absence	det
2	absence	absence	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 part	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 bones	case
4	bones	bone	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 absence	nmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 beak	punct
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 beak	det
7	beak	beak	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 part	obl
8	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	12 part	cop
9	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 part	nmod:poss
10	only	only	ADV	_	11 hard	advmod
11	hard	hard	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 part	amod
12	part	part	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	gerund	the absence of bones	absence's hard part				the beak obl	tree rules
2	absent			bones					nom absence «state transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

Its ability to enlarge the aperture by force

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 ability	nmod:poss
2	ability	ability	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 enlarge	nsubj
3	to	to	PART	_	4 enlarge	mark
4	enlarge	enlarge	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 aperture	det
6	aperture	aperture	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 enlarge	obj
7	by	by	ADP	_	8 force	case
8	force	force	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 enlarge	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	enlarge	to-infinitive	Its ability	the aperture				by force	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent aperture=Patient

Option 4

The elasticity of its skeleton

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 elasticity	det
2	elasticity	elasticity	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 skeleton	case
4	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 skeleton	nmod:poss
5	skeleton	skeleton	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 elasticity	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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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