Exam question 4 · Evolution: why giraffes really have long necks

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the loss of eyes in Mexican cave fish?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: loss

This is exam question 4 of lesson 278 «Evolution: why giraffes really have long necks» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 loss	det
10	loss	loss	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	12 eyes	case
12	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 loss	nmod
13	in	in	ADP	_	16 fish	case
14	Mexican	Mexican	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 fish	amod
15	cave	cave	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 fish	compound
16	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 eyes	nmod
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the loss of eyes in Mexican cave fish				of the following statements; accurately property	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

The eyes were removed by predatory creatures

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 eyes	det
2	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 removed	nsubj:pass
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 removed	aux:pass
4	removed	remove	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 creatures	case
6	predatory	predatory	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 creatures	amod
7	creatures	creature	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 removed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	remove	past · passive	predatory creatures	the eyes					vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Eyes, being costly and useless in darkness, diminished over many generations

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 costly	nsubj
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Eyes	punct
3	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 costly	cop
4	costly	costly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 useless	cc
6	useless	useless	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 costly	conj
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 darkness	case
8	darkness	darkness	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 useless	obl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 diminished	punct
10	diminished	diminish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 costly	conj
11	over	over	ADP	_	13 generations	case
12	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 generations	amod
13	generations	generation	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 diminished	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	gerund	Eyes			costly property	tree rules
2	be		Eyes not said here	darkness			tree rules
3	diminish	participle	Eyes not said here		over many generations		vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient

Option 3

The fish were born without eyes in a single generation

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 fish	det
2	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 born	nsubj:pass
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 born	aux:pass
4	born	bear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	without	without	ADP	_	6 eyes	case
6	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 born	obl
7	in	in	ADP	_	10 generation	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 generation	det
9	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 generation	amod
10	generation	generation	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 born	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	bear	past · passive		the fish			in a single generation	without eyes	vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 4

Each individual fish elected to discard its eyes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	3 fish	det
2	individual	individual	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 fish	amod
3	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	elected	elect	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 fish	acl
5	to	to	PART	_	6 discard	mark
6	discard	discard	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 elected	xcomp
7	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 eyes	nmod:poss
8	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 discard	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	elect	participle		each individual fish not said here					tree rules
2	discard	to-infinitive		fish's eyes					vn throw-17.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eye=Theme

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/278-evolution-why-giraffes-really-have-long-necks/e4/