Exam question 3 · Terror birds, moas, giant insects and other lost giants

Ascertain the tendency observed among elephants isolated upon islands such as Sicily and Crete.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, observe, isolate · To what, where: tendency, elephants, islands

This is exam question 3 of lesson 274 «Terror birds, moas, giant insects and other lost giants» 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 tendency	det
3	tendency	tendency	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	observed	observe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 tendency	acl
5	among	among	ADP	_	6 elephants	case
6	elephants	elephant	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 observed	obl
7	isolated	isolate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 elephants	acl
8	upon	upon	ADP	_	9 islands	case
9	islands	island	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 isolated	obl
10	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos ExtPos=ADP	12 Sicily	case
11	as	as	ADP	_	10 such	fixed
12	Sicily	Sicily	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 islands	nmod
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 Crete	cc
14	Crete	Crete	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 Sicily	conj
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the tendency			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tendency=Topic
2	observe	participle		the tendency not said here		among elephants	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
3	isolate	participle		elephants not said here	islands such Sicily and Crete		vn concealment-16 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent upon island=Location

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 loss of the trunk

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 loss	det
2	loss	loss	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 trunk	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 trunk	det
5	trunk	trunk	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 loss	nmod

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

Option 2

An increase in body size to twice the mainland form

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 increase	det
2	increase	increase	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 size	case
4	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 size	compound
5	size	size	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 increase	nmod
6	to	to	PART	_	10 form	mark
7	twice	twice	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	10 form	advmod
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 form	det
9	mainland	mainland	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 form	compound
10	form	form	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 increase	appos

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

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

A reduction in body size to that of a pony

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 reduction	det
2	reduction	reduction	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 that	nsubj
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 size	case
4	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 size	compound
5	size	size	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reduction	nmod
6	to	to	ADP	_	7 that	case
7	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	root	root
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 pony	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 pony	det
10	pony	pony	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 that	nmod

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

Option 4

The acquisition of the capacity for flight

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 acquisition	det
2	acquisition	acquisition	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 capacity	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 capacity	det
5	capacity	capacity	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 acquisition	nmod
6	for	for	ADP	_	7 flight	case
7	flight	flight	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 capacity	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	acquire			the capacity for flight					nom acquisition «act transitive»: of=patient

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/274-terror-birds-moas-giant-insects-and-lost-giants/e3/