Exam question 4 · The human body deeper: the brain and nerves

Ascertain the reason for which a person is unable to tickle himself.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, person · What happens: ascertain, be, tickle · To what, where: reason, person

This is exam question 4 of lesson 260 «The human body deeper: the brain and nerves» 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 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 unable	obl
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 person	det
7	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 unable	nsubj
8	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 unable	cop
9	unable	unable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 reason	acl
10	to	to	PART	_	11 tickle	mark
11	tickle	tickle	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 unable	xcomp
12	himself	himself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	11 tickle	obj
13	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the reason		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	is	present	a person		for the reason; unable property	tree rules
3	tickle	to-infinitive	a person not said here	person		vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent himself=Experiencer

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 skin is insensible to the touch of the same body

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 skin	det
2	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 insensible	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 insensible	cop
4	insensible	insensible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 touch	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 touch	det
7	touch	touch	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 insensible	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	11 body	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 body	det
10	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 body	amod
11	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 touch	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the skin					to the touch of the same body; insensible property	tree rules
2	touch			the same body					nom touch «event transitive»: of=patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The brain anticipates the sensation of his own touch and diminishes it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 brain	det
2	brain	brain	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 anticipates	nsubj
3	anticipates	anticipate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 sensation	det
5	sensation	sensation	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 anticipates	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	9 touch	case
7	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 touch	nmod:poss
8	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 touch	amod
9	touch	touch	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 sensation	nmod
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 diminishes	cc
11	diminishes	diminish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 anticipates	conj
12	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 diminishes	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	anticipate	present	the brain	the sensation of brain's own touch	vn conjecture-29.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sensation=Theme
2	diminish	present	the brain not said here	sensation	vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Causer it=Patient
3	sense			brain's own touch	nom sensation «cognition transitive»: of=patient
4	touch		brain		nom touch «event transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

The fingers lack the necessary warmth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 fingers	det
2	fingers	finger	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 lack	nsubj
3	lack	lack	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 warmth	det
5	necessary	necessary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 warmth	amod
6	warmth	warmth	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lack	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lack	present	the fingers	the necessary warmth					tree rules

Option 4

Tickling is possible only during sleep

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Tickling	tickling	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 possible	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 possible	cop
3	possible	possible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	only	only	ADV	_	6 sleep	advmod
5	during	during	ADP	_	6 sleep	case
6	sleep	sleep	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 possible	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Tickling				during sleep	possible property	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/260-human-body-deeper-the-brain-and-nerves/e4/