Exam question 3 · Cats through history: Egypt's sacred cats, ship cats and T…

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the purr of the domestic cat?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: domestic cat · What happens: follow, characteris, purr · To what, where: purr

This is exam question 3 of lesson 294 «Cats through history: Egypt's sacred cats, ship cats and Tom and Jerry» 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 purr	det
10	purr	purr	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	14 cat	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 cat	det
13	domestic	domestic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 cat	amod
14	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 purr	nmod
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the purr of the domestic cat	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	purr		the domestic cat			nom purr «event 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 · ✓ the right answer

It may signify contentment but may equally accompany pain or fear

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 signify	nsubj
2	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 signify	aux
3	signify	signify	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	contentment	contentment	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 signify	obj
5	but	but	CCONJ	_	8 accompany	cc
6	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 accompany	aux
7	equally	equally	ADV	_	8 accompany	advmod
8	accompany	accompany	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 signify	conj
9	pain	pain	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 accompany	obj
10	or	or	CCONJ	_	11 fear	cc
11	fear	fear	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 pain	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	signify	may	It	contentment					vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot contentment=Theme
2	accompany	may		pain or fear				equally property	vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pain=Theme

Option 2

It signifies contentment exclusively

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 signifies	nsubj
2	signifies	signify	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	contentment	contentment	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 signifies	obj
4	exclusively	exclusively	ADV	_	2 signifies	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	signify	present	It	contentment				exclusively property	vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot contentment=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

It is shared by all large cats, including the lion and the tiger

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 shared	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 shared	aux:pass
3	shared	share	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	7 cats	case
5	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 cats	det
6	large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 cats	amod
7	cats	cat	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 shared	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 lion	punct
9	including	including	ADP	_	11 lion	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 lion	det
11	lion	lion	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 shared	parataxis
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 tiger	cc
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 tiger	det
14	tiger	tiger	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 lion	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	share	present · passive	all large cats	It					tree rules

Option 4

It is produced by the tail

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 produced	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 produced	aux:pass
3	produced	produce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	6 tail	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 tail	det
6	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 produced	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	produce	present · passive	the tail	It					vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Result

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/294-cats-through-history-egypt-s-sacred-cats-ship-cats-and-tom-and-jerry/e3/