Exam question 2 · Horses, zebras and donkeys

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the parentage of a mule?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris, parent · To what, where: parentage, mule

This is exam question 2 of lesson 25 «Horses, zebras and donkeys» 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 parentage	det
10	parentage	parentage	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 mule	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 mule	det
13	mule	mule	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 parentage	nmod
14	?	?	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 parentage of a mule	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	parent		a mule		nom parentage «state 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

It is the offspring of two wild horses

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 offspring	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 offspring	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 offspring	det
4	offspring	offspring	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 horses	case
6	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	8 horses	nummod
7	wild	wild	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 horses	amod
8	horses	horse	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 offspring	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	the offspring				of two wild horses	tree rules

Option 2

It is the offspring of a male horse and a female zebra

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 offspring	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 offspring	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 offspring	det
4	offspring	offspring	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 horse	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 horse	det
7	male	male	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 horse	amod
8	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 offspring	nmod
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 zebra	cc
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 zebra	det
11	female	female	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 zebra	amod
12	zebra	zebra	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 offspring	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	the offspring and a female zebra				of a male horse	tree rules

Option 3

It is the offspring of a male zebra and a female donkey

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 offspring	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 offspring	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 offspring	det
4	offspring	offspring	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 zebra	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 zebra	det
7	male	male	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 zebra	amod
8	zebra	zebra	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 offspring	nmod
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 donkey	cc
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 donkey	det
11	female	female	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 donkey	amod
12	donkey	donkey	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 zebra	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	the offspring				of a male zebra and a female donkey	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse

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 offspring	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 offspring	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 offspring	det
4	offspring	offspring	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 donkey	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 donkey	det
7	male	male	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 donkey	amod
8	donkey	donkey	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 offspring	nmod
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 horse	cc
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 horse	det
11	female	female	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 horse	amod
12	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 donkey	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	the offspring				of a male donkey and a female horse	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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/25-horses-zebras-and-donkeys/e2/