Exam question 4 · Dolphins, porpoises and seals

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the distinction between sea lions and true seals.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, established facts · What happens: select, establish, concern · To what, where: response, distinction

This is exam question 4 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	xcomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 facts	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 facts	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 facts	amod
8	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 facts	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 distinction	det
11	distinction	distinction	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
12	between	between	ADP	_	14 lions	case
13	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 lions	compound
14	lions	lion	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 distinction	nmod
15	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 seals	cc
16	true	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 seals	amod
17	seals	seal	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 lions	conj
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response	consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the distinction	between sea lions and true seals	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus distinction=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 right answer

Sea lions possess external ears and can walk upon their flippers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 lions	compound
2	lions	lion	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 possess	nsubj
3	possess	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	external	external	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 ears	amod
5	ears	ear	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 possess	obj
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 walk	cc
7	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 walk	aux
8	walk	walk	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 possess	conj
9	upon	upon	ADP	_	11 flippers	case
10	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 flippers	nmod:poss
11	flippers	flipper	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 walk	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	Sea lions	external ears					vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot ear=Theme
2	walk	can	Sea lions not said here			lions's flippers			vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon flipper=Trajectory

Option 2

True seals possess external ears and are able to walk upright upon land

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	True	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 seals	amod
2	seals	seal	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 possess	nsubj
3	possess	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	external	external	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 ears	amod
5	ears	ear	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 possess	obj
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 able	cc
7	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 able	cop
8	able	able	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 possess	conj
9	to	to	PART	_	10 walk	mark
10	walk	walk	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 able	xcomp
11	upright	upright	ADV	_	10 walk	advmod
12	upon	upon	ADP	_	13 land	case
13	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 walk	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	possess	present	True seals	external ears			vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot ear=Theme
2	is	present	True seals not said here			able property	tree rules
3	walk	to-infinitive	True seals not said here		land	upright property	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon land=Trajectory

Option 3

The two are in every respect identical

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 two	det
2	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 respect	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 respect	cop
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 respect	case
5	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	6 respect	det
6	respect	respect	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	identical	identical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 respect	amod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the two			every respect			tree rules

Option 4

Sea lions lack external ears entirely

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 lions	compound
2	lions	lion	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 lack	nsubj
3	lack	lack	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	external	external	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 ears	amod
5	ears	ear	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 lack	obj
6	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	3 lack	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lack	present	Sea lions	external ears				entirely 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/27-dolphins-porpoises-and-seals/e4/