Exam question 3 · Ants: colonies, queens, farmers and living bridges

Ascertain the classification of the insects colloquially designated «white ants».

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, classification · What happens: ascertain, designate, classify · To what, where: white ants, insects

This is exam question 3 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 classification	det
3	classification	classification	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 designated	nsubj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 insects	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 insects	det
6	insects	insect	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 classification	nmod
7	colloquially	colloquially	ADV	_	8 designated	advmod
8	designated	designate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 Ascertain	parataxis
9	«	«	PUNCT	_	11 ants	punct
10	white	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 ants	amod
11	ants	ant	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 designated	obj
12	»	»	PUNCT	_	11 ants	punct
13	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here			vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent
2	designate	past	the classification of the insects	white ants	colloquially property	vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ant=Theme
3	classify			the insects		nom classification «act 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 · ← Mova's choice

They are a species of albino ant

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 species	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 species	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 species	det
4	species	species	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 ant	case
6	albino	albino	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 ant	compound
7	ant	ant	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 species	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	They	a species				of albino ant	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

They are termites, more nearly related to cockroaches than to ants

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 termites	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 termites	cop
3	termites	termite	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 related	punct
5	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	7 related	advmod
6	nearly	nearly	ADV	_	7 related	advmod
7	related	related	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 termites	acl:relcl
8	to	to	ADP	_	9 cockroaches	case
9	cockroaches	cockroach	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 related	obl
10	than	than	ADP	_	12 ants	case
11	to	to	ADP	_	12 ants	case
12	ants	ant	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 cockroaches	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	They	termites					tree rules

Option 3

They are juvenile ants

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 ants	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 ants	cop
3	juvenile	juvenile	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 ants	compound
4	ants	ant	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	They	juvenile ants					tree rules

Option 4

They are the queens of ant colonies

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 queens	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 queens	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 queens	det
4	queens	queen	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 colonies	case
6	ant	ant	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 colonies	compound
7	colonies	colony	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 queens	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	They	the queens				of ant colonies	tree rules

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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