Exam question 1 · Defences: tricks and myths: playing dead, dropping tails,…

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the conduct popularly described as an ostrich burying its head in the sand?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: ostrich · What happens: follow, characteris, describe, bury · To what, where: conduct, head, sand

This is exam question 1 of lesson 249 «Defences: tricks and myths: playing dead, dropping tails, ink, and do ostriches bury their heads?» 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	10 conduct	det
10	conduct	conduct	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	popularly	popularly	ADV	_	12 described	advmod
12	described	describe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 conduct	acl
13	as	as	ADP	_	15 ostrich	case
14	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 ostrich	det
15	ostrich	ostrich	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 described	obl
16	burying	bury	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	15 ostrich	acl
17	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	18 head	nmod:poss
18	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 burying	obj
19	in	in	ADP	_	21 sand	case
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 sand	det
21	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 burying	obl
22	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund					vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the conduct		of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	describe	participle		the conduct not said here		as a ostrich; popularly property	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent as ostrich=Attribute
4	bury	gerund	a ostrich not said here	ostrich's head	the sand		vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent head=Theme in sand=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

It is practised exclusively by juvenile ostriches

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 practised	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 practised	aux:pass
3	practised	practise	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	exclusively	exclusively	ADV	_	3 practised	advmod
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 ostriches	case
6	juvenile	juvenile	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 ostriches	compound
7	ostriches	ostrich	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 practised	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	practise	present · passive	juvenile ostriches	It				exclusively property	tree rules

Option 2

It is a well-documented response to the approach of predators, observed by many naturalists in Africa

The tree, 17 words

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	7 response	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 response	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 response	det
4	well	well	ADV	Degree=Pos	6 documented	advmod
5	-	-	PUNCT	_	4 well	punct
6	documented	document	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 response	amod
7	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
8	to	to	ADP	_	10 approach	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 approach	det
10	approach	approach	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 response	nmod
11	of	of	ADP	_	12 predators	case
12	predators	predator	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 approach	nmod
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 observed	punct
14	observed	observe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 response	acl
15	by	by	ADP	_	17 naturalists	case
16	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 naturalists	amod
17	naturalists	naturalist	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 observed	obl
18	in	in	ADP	_	19 Africa	case
19	Africa	Africa	PROPN	Number=Sing	14 observed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	document	participle				well property	vn transcribe-25.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	is a	present	It	a documented response		to the approach of predators	tree rules
3	observe	participle		a documented response not said here	Africa	by many naturalists	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
4	approach		predators				nom approach «act intransitive»: of=agent

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

It is a myth arising from the lowering of the head to tend eggs or to lie concealed

The tree, 18 words

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 myth	expl
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 myth	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 myth	det
4	myth	myth	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	arising	arise	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 myth	acl
6	from	from	ADP	_	8 lowering	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 lowering	det
8	lowering	lowering	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 arising	obl
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 head	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 head	det
11	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 lowering	nmod
12	to	to	PART	_	13 tend	mark
13	tend	tend	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 myth	acl
14	eggs	egg	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 tend	obj
15	or	or	CCONJ	_	17 lie	cc
16	to	to	PART	_	17 lie	mark
17	lie	lie	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	13 tend	conj
18	concealed	conceal	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	17 lie	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	is a	present		a myth		tree rules
2	arise	gerund	a myth not said here		the lowering of the head	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	tend	to-infinitive		eggs		vn caring-75.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent egg=Theme
4	lie	to-infinitive				tree rules
5	conceal	participle				vn concealment-16 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
6	lower			the head		nom lowering «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

It is a means of obtaining water from beneath the sand

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 means	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 means	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 means	nsubj
4	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	of	of	SCONJ	_	6 obtaining	mark
6	obtaining	obtain	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 means	advcl
7	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 obtaining	obj
8	from	from	ADP	_	11 sand	case
9	beneath	beneath	ADP	_	11 sand	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 sand	det
11	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 obtaining	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					mean property	tree rules
2	obtain	gerund		water		the sand			vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent water=Theme from sand=Source

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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