Exam question 1 · Dolphins, porpoises and seals

Identify the faculty by which a dolphin is enabled to locate objects in turbid water.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, faculty, dolphin · What happens: identify, enable, locate · To what, where: faculty, dolphin, objects, turbid water

This is exam question 1 of lesson 27 «Dolphins, porpoises and seals» 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 faculty	det
3	faculty	faculty	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 enabled	obl
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 dolphin	det
7	dolphin	dolphin	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 enabled	nsubj:pass
8	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 enabled	aux:pass
9	enabled	enable	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 faculty	acl:relcl
10	to	to	PART	_	11 locate	mark
11	locate	locate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 enabled	xcomp
12	objects	object	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 locate	obj
13	in	in	ADP	_	15 water	case
14	turbid	turbid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 water	amod
15	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 locate	obl
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the faculty		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent faculty=Theme
2	enable	present · passive	the faculty	a dolphin		tree rules
3	locate	to-infinitive	a dolphin not said here	objects	turbid water	tree rules

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

Detection of heat by the skin

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Detection	detection	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	of	of	ADP	_	3 heat	case
3	heat	heat	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Detection	nmod
4	by	by	ADP	_	6 skin	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 skin	det
6	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Detection	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	detect		the skin	heat					nom detection «cognition transitive»: of=patient by=agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Echolocation, by means of emitted clicks and returning echoes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Echolocation	echolocation	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 means	nsubj
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 means	punct
3	by	by	ADP	_	4 means	case
4	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 clicks	case
6	emitted	emit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 clicks	amod
7	clicks	click	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 means	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 echoes	cc
9	returning	return	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 echoes	amod
10	echoes	echo	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 clicks	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	mean	present	Echolocation	of emitted clicks and returning echoes	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	emit	participle			vn substance_emission-43.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Source
3	return	gerund			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

Olfaction, by means of the blowhole

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Olfaction	olfaction	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 means	nsubj
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 means	punct
3	by	by	ADP	_	4 means	case
4	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 blowhole	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 blowhole	det
7	blowhole	blowhole	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 means	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	Olfaction					of the blowhole	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent

Option 4

Vision alone, by means of eyes of unusual size and sensitivity

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Vision	vision	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 means	nsubj
2	alone	alone	ADV	_	1 Vision	advmod
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 means	punct
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 means	case
5	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 eyes	case
7	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 means	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 size	case
9	unusual	unusual	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 size	amod
10	size	size	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 eyes	nmod
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 sensitivity	cc
12	sensitivity	sensitivity	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 size	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	Vision					of eyes of unusual size and sensitivity	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent

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/27-dolphins-porpoises-and-seals/e1/