Exam question 1 · The long-necked giants: Diplodocus, Brachiosaurus, Argenti…

Identify the feature of the sauropod skeleton that is understood to have reduced its overall mass.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, understand, reduce, feature · To what, where: feature, sauropod skeleton, overall mass

This is exam question 1 of lesson 266 «The long-necked giants: Diplodocus, Brachiosaurus, Argentinosaurus and Brontosaurus» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 feature	det
3	feature	feature	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 skeleton	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 skeleton	det
6	sauropod	sauropod	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 skeleton	compound
7	skeleton	skeleton	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 feature	nmod
8	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 understood	nsubj:pass
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 understood	aux:pass
10	understood	understand	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 skeleton	acl:relcl
11	to	to	PART	_	13 reduced	mark
12	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	13 reduced	aux
13	reduced	reduce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	10 understood	advcl
14	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 mass	nmod:poss
15	overall	overall	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 mass	amod
16	mass	mass	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 reduced	obj
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the feature of the sauropod skeleton	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent feature=Theme
2	understand	present · passive		the sauropod skeleton	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Stimulus
3	reduce	to-infinitive · perfect		skeleton's overall mass	vn limit-76 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer mass=Patient
4	feature			the sauropod skeleton	nom feature «cognition 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 replacement of the heavy tail by a fin of skin

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 replacement	det
2	replacement	replacement	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 tail	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 tail	det
5	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 tail	amod
6	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 replacement	nmod
7	by	by	ADP	_	9 fin	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 fin	det
9	fin	fin	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 replacement	nmod
10	of	of	ADP	_	11 skin	case
11	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 fin	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	replace		a fin of skin	the heavy tail					nom replacement «act transitive»: of=patient by=agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The presence of air-filled spaces within the bones

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 presence	det
2	presence	presence	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	7 spaces	case
4	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 filled	compound
5	-	-	PUNCT	_	4 air	punct
6	filled	fill	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 spaces	amod
7	spaces	space	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 presence	nmod
8	within	within	ADP	_	10 bones	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 bones	det
10	bones	bone	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 presence	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fill	participle							vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 3

The complete absence of any bones within the neck

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 absence	det
2	complete	complete	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 absence	amod
3	absence	absence	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 bones	case
5	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	6 bones	det
6	bones	bone	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 absence	nmod
7	within	within	ADP	_	9 neck	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 neck	det
9	neck	neck	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 bones	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	absent			any bones within the neck					nom absence «state transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

The composition of the bones from cartilage alone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 composition	det
2	composition	composition	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 bones	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 bones	det
5	bones	bone	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 composition	nmod
6	from	from	ADP	_	7 cartilage	case
7	cartilage	cartilage	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 bones	nmod
8	alone	alone	ADV	_	7 cartilage	advmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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/266-the-long-necked-giants-sauropods/e1/