Exam question 1 · Ants: colonies, queens, farmers and living bridges

Identify the means by which worker ants guide their nestmates to a source of food.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, the, worker ants · What happens: identify, mean, guide · To what, where: nestmates · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 1 of lesson 238 «Ants: colonies, queens, farmers and living bridges» 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	3 means	nsubj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Identify	ccomp
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 guide	obl
6	worker	worker	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 ants	compound
7	ants	ant	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 guide	nsubj
8	guide	guide	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 means	ccomp
9	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 nestmates	nmod:poss
10	nestmates	nestmate	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 guide	obj
11	to	to	ADP	_	13 source	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 source	det
13	source	source	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 guide	obl
14	of	of	ADP	_	15 food	case
15	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 source	nmod
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	mean	present	the			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	guide	present	worker ants	ants's nestmates	to a source of food	vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent nestmate=Theme by which=Destination

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

Visual signals emitted by the queen

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Visual	visual	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 signals	amod
2	signals	signal	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	emitted	emit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 signals	acl
4	by	by	ADP	_	6 queen	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 queen	det
6	queen	queen	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 emitted	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	emit	participle		Visual signals not said here				by the queen	vn substance_emission-43.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Source

Option 2

Maps scratched into the soil

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Maps	map	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 scratched	nsubj
2	scratched	scratch	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	into	into	ADP	_	5 soil	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 soil	det
5	soil	soil	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 scratched	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	scratch	participle	Maps					into the soil	vn cut-21.1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent into soil=Patient

Option 3

Vocal calls of high frequency

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Vocal	vocal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 calls	amod
2	calls	call	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 frequency	case
4	high	high	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 frequency	amod
5	frequency	frequency	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 calls	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	call			high frequency					nom call «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Trails of chemical scent designated pheromones

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Trails	trail	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 pheromones	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	4 scent	case
3	chemical	chemical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 scent	amod
4	scent	scent	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Trails	nmod
5	designated	designate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 pheromones	amod
6	pheromones	pheromone	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	designate	participle							vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: 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.

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