Exam question 3 · Sharks

Ascertain the faculty by which a shark may detect prey concealed beneath the sand.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, shark · What happens: ascertain, detect, conceal · To what, where: faculty, prey, sand

This is exam question 3 of lesson 28 «Sharks» 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 faculty	det
3	faculty	faculty	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 detect	obl
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 shark	det
7	shark	shark	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 detect	nsubj
8	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 detect	aux
9	detect	detect	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 faculty	acl:relcl
10	prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 detect	obj
11	concealed	conceal	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 prey	acl
12	beneath	beneath	ADP	_	14 sand	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 sand	det
14	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 concealed	obl
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the faculty			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent faculty=Topic
2	detect	may	a shark	prey		by the faculty	vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer prey=Stimulus
3	conceal	participle		prey not said here	the sand		vn concealment-16 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent beneath sand=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

Vision through the sand

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Vision	vision	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	through	through	ADP	_	4 sand	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 sand	det
4	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Vision	nmod

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

Option 2

Taste at a great distance

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Taste	taste	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	at	at	ADP	_	5 distance	case
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 distance	det
4	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 distance	amod
5	distance	distance	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Taste	nmod

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

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Electroreception by means of the ampullae of Lorenzini

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Electroreception	electroreception	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 means	nsubj
2	by	by	ADP	_	1 Electroreception	fixed
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 ampullae	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 ampullae	det
6	ampullae	ampulla	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 means	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 Lorenzini	case
8	Lorenzini	Lorenzini	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 ampullae	nmod

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

Option 4

Detection of light emitted by the prey

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 light	case
3	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Detection	nmod
4	emitted	emit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Detection	acl
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 prey	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 prey	det
7	prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 emitted	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	emit	participle		Detection of light not said here				by the prey	vn substance_emission-43.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Source
2	detect			light					nom detection «cognition 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.

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