Exam question 1 · Comeback stories: bald eagles, humpback whales, condors an…

Identify the principal cause of the decline of the bald eagle during the twentieth century.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, bald eagle · What happens: identify, cause, decline · To what, where: principal cause, decline

This is exam question 1 of lesson 282 «Comeback stories: bald eagles, humpback whales, condors and the kakapo» 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	4 cause	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 cause	amod
4	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 decline	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 decline	det
7	decline	decline	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 cause	nmod
8	of	of	ADP	_	11 eagle	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 eagle	det
10	bald	bald	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 eagle	amod
11	eagle	eagle	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 decline	nmod
12	during	during	ADP	_	15 century	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 century	det
14	twentieth	twentieth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 century	amod
15	century	century	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obl
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal cause of the decline of the bald eagle	century	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent cause=Theme
2	cause			the decline of the bald eagle		nom cause «event transitive»: of=patient
3	decline		the bald eagle			nom decline «process intransitive»: of=agent

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 removal of eagles to zoological gardens

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 removal	det
2	removal	removal	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 eagles	case
4	eagles	eagle	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 removal	nmod
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 gardens	case
6	zoological	zoological	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 gardens	amod
7	gardens	garden	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 removal	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	remove			eagles				to zoological gardens	nom removal «act transitive»: of=patient to=obl

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The pesticide DDT, which caused the shells of its eggs to become thin

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 DDT	det
2	pesticide	pesticide	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 DDT	compound
3	DDT	ddt	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 caused	punct
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 caused	nsubj
6	caused	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 DDT	acl:relcl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 shells	det
8	shells	shell	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 caused	obj
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 eggs	case
10	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 eggs	nmod:poss
11	eggs	egg	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 shells	nmod
12	to	to	PART	_	13 become	mark
13	become	become	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 caused	advcl
14	thin	thin	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 become	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cause	past	the pesticide DDT	the shells of DDT's eggs					vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition shell=Patient
2	become	to-infinitive	the pesticide DDT not said here					thin property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

Option 3

An epidemic of influenza among nestlings

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 epidemic	det
2	epidemic	epidemic	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 influenza	case
4	influenza	influenza	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 epidemic	nmod
5	among	among	ADP	_	6 nestlings	case
6	nestlings	nestling	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 epidemic	nmod

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

Option 4

A succession of exceptionally cold winters

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 succession	det
2	succession	succession	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 winters	case
4	exceptionally	exceptionally	ADV	_	5 cold	advmod
5	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 winters	amod
6	winters	winter	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 succession	nmod

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

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/282-comeback-stories-bald-eagles-humpback-whales-condors-and-the-kakapo/e1/