Exam question 1 · Animal minds: elephants' memory, feelings and the mouse myth

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the alleged fear of mice exhibited by elephants?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · What happens: follow, characteris, exhibit, fear · To what, where: alleged fear, mice

This is exam question 1 of lesson 236 «Animal minds: elephants' memory, feelings and the mouse myth» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 fear	det
10	alleged	alleged	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 fear	amod
11	fear	fear	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 mice	case
13	mice	mouse	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 fear	nmod
14	exhibited	exhibit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	13 mice	acl
15	by	by	ADP	_	16 elephants	case
16	elephants	elephant	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 exhibited	obl
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present	the alleged fear of mice	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	exhibit	participle	mice not said here	by elephants	vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
4	fear		mice		nom fear «feeling transitive»: of=patient

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 is confined to elephants kept in circuses

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	3 confined	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 confined	aux:pass
3	confined	confine	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	5 elephants	case
5	elephants	elephant	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 confined	obl
6	kept	keep	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 elephants	acl
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 circuses	case
8	circuses	circus	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 kept	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	confine	present · passive		It	elephants				vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme to elephant=Destination
2	keep	participle		elephants not said here		circuses			vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent in circus=Location

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

No sound evidence supports it, an elephant being startled by any sudden movement near its feet

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	DET	PronType=Neg	3 evidence	det
2	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 evidence	compound
3	evidence	evidence	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 supports	nsubj
4	supports	support	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 supports	obj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 startled	punct
7	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 elephant	det
8	elephant	elephant	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 startled	nsubj:pass
9	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	10 startled	aux:pass
10	startled	startle	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 supports	parataxis
11	by	by	ADP	_	14 movement	case
12	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	14 movement	det
13	sudden	sudden	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 movement	amod
14	movement	movement	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 startled	obl
15	near	near	ADP	_	17 feet	case
16	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	17 feet	nmod:poss
17	feet	foot	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 movement	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	support	present	no sound evidence	it					vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer it=Stimulus
2	startle	gerund · passive	any sudden movement near elephant's feet	a elephant					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus subject=Experiencer

Option 3

It arises from the habit of mice of entering the trunk

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 arises	nsubj
2	arises	arise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	from	from	ADP	_	5 habit	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 habit	det
5	habit	habit	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 arises	obl
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 mice	case
7	mice	mouse	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 habit	nmod
8	of	of	SCONJ	_	9 entering	mark
9	entering	enter	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 habit	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 trunk	det
11	trunk	trunk	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 entering	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	arise	present	It			the habit of mice			vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	enter	gerund	the habit of mice not said here	the trunk					vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme trunk=Destination

Option 4

It is universally observed in all elephants

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	4 observed	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 observed	aux:pass
3	universally	universally	ADV	_	4 observed	advmod
4	observed	observe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 elephants	case
6	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 elephants	det
7	elephants	elephant	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 observed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	observe	present · passive		It				in all elephants; universally property	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: subject=Topic

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/236-animal-minds-elephants-memory-feelings-and-the-mouse-myth/e1/