Exam question 3 · Animal minds: the octopus, escape artist and puzzle solver

Ascertain the reason for which the blood of the octopus is of a blue colour.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, blood · What happens: ascertain, be · To what, where: reason

This is exam question 3 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	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	15 colour	obl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 blood	det
7	blood	blood	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 colour	nsubj
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 octopus	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 octopus	det
10	octopus	octopus	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 blood	nmod
11	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 colour	cop
12	of	of	ADP	_	15 colour	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 colour	det
14	blue	blue	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 colour	amod
15	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 reason	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 reason					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	is	present	the blood of the octopus					of a blue colour; for the reason	tree rules

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

Sea water of a blue colour is absorbed into it through the skin

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 water	compound
2	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 absorbed	nsubj:pass
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 colour	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 colour	det
5	blue	blue	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 colour	amod
6	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 water	nmod
7	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 absorbed	aux:pass
8	absorbed	absorb	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
9	into	into	ADP	_	10 it	case
10	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 absorbed	obl
11	through	through	ADP	_	13 skin	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 skin	det
13	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 absorbed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	absorb	present · passive		Sea water of a blue colour		colour		through the skin	vn absorb-39.8 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 2

Ink is mixed with the blood

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ink	ink	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 mixed	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 mixed	aux:pass
3	mixed	mix	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	with	with	ADP	_	6 blood	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 blood	det
6	blood	blood	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 mixed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mix	present · passive		Ink				with the blood	vn mix-22.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: subject=Patient with blood=Co-Patient

Option 3

The animal is permanently chilled

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 animal	det
2	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 chilled	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 chilled	aux:pass
4	permanently	permanently	ADV	_	5 chilled	advmod
5	chilled	chill	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	chill	present · passive		the animal				permanently property	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Experiencer

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Copper rather than iron is employed in the transport of oxygen

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Copper	copper	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 employed	nsubj:pass
2	rather	rather	ADV	ExtPos=CCONJ	4 iron	cc
3	than	than	ADP	_	2 rather	fixed
4	iron	iron	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Copper	conj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 employed	aux:pass
6	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 transport	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 transport	det
9	transport	transport	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 employed	obl
10	of	of	ADP	_	11 oxygen	case
11	oxygen	oxygen	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 transport	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	employ	present · passive		Copper rather iron		the transport of oxygen			vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: subject=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/234-animal-minds-the-octopus-escape-artist-and-puzzle-solver/e3/