Exam question 3 · Plants deeper: carnivorous plants that count, slip and suck

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the reports of man-eating trees in Madagascar published during the nineteenth century?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: reports · What happens: follow, characteris, eat, publish, report · To what, where: eating trees

This is exam question 3 of lesson 254 «Plants deeper: carnivorous plants that count, slip and suck» 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 reports	det
10	reports	report	NOUN	Number=Plur	18 published	nsubj
11	of	of	ADP	_	15 trees	case
12	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 eating	compound
13	-	-	PUNCT	_	12 man	punct
14	eating	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	15 trees	amod
15	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 reports	nmod
16	in	in	ADP	_	17 Madagascar	case
17	Madagascar	Madagascar	PROPN	Number=Sing	15 trees	nmod
18	published	publish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 characterises	ccomp
19	during	during	ADP	_	22 century	case
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	22 century	det
21	nineteenth	nineteenth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	22 century	amod
22	century	century	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 published	obl
23	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund					vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present				of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	eat	gerund					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	publish	past	the reports of eating trees in Madagascar		century		vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
5	report			eating trees in Madagascar			nom report «communication 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 · ✓ the right answer

They were a hoax without foundation in fact

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 hoax	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 hoax	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 hoax	det
4	hoax	hoax	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	without	without	ADP	_	6 foundation	case
6	foundation	foundation	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 hoax	nmod
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 fact	case
8	fact	fact	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 hoax	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	They	a hoax		fact		without foundation	tree rules

Option 2

They described a species now extinct

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	2 described	nsubj
2	described	describe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 species	det
4	species	species	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 described	obj
5	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	6 extinct	advmod
6	extinct	extinct	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 described	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	describe	past	They	a species				extinct property	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent species=Theme

Option 3

They were accurate accounts of giant pitcher plants

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 accounts	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 accounts	cop
3	accurate	accurate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 accounts	amod
4	accounts	account	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 plants	case
6	giant	giant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 plants	amod
7	pitcher	pitcher	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 plants	compound
8	plants	plant	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 accounts	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	They	accurate accounts				of giant pitcher plants	tree rules

Option 4

They referred to a carnivorous fungus

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	2 referred	nsubj
2	referred	refer	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	ADP	_	6 fungus	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 fungus	det
5	carnivorous	carnivorous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 fungus	amod
6	fungus	fungus	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 referred	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	refer	past	They					to a carnivorous fungus	vn relate-86.2-2 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme to fungus=Co-Theme

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/254-plants-deeper-carnivorous-plants-that-count-slip-and-suck/e3/