Exam question 1 · Animal myths put right: elephants and mice, lemmings, ostr…

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the reaction of elephants to small rodents.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, established facts, elephants · What happens: select, establish, concern, react · To what, where: response, reaction

This is exam question 1 of lesson 295 «Animal myths put right: elephants and mice, lemmings, ostriches and goldfish» 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	xcomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 facts	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 facts	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 facts	amod
8	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 facts	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 reaction	det
11	reaction	reaction	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 elephants	case
13	elephants	elephant	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 reaction	nmod
14	to	to	ADP	_	16 rodents	case
15	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 rodents	amod
16	rodents	rodent	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 elephants	nmod
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response	consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the reaction of elephants to small rodents		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus reaction=Experiencer
4	react		elephants to small rodents			nom reaction «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

Elephants exhibit an innate and specific terror of mice, which may enter the trunk and obstruct it

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Elephants	elephant	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 exhibit	nsubj
2	exhibit	exhibit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 terror	det
4	innate	innate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 terror	amod
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 specific	cc
6	specific	specific	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 innate	conj
7	terror	terror	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 exhibit	obj
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 mice	case
9	mice	mouse	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 terror	nmod
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 enter	punct
11	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	13 enter	nsubj
12	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 enter	aux
13	enter	enter	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 terror	parataxis
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 trunk	det
15	trunk	trunk	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 enter	obj
16	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 obstruct	cc
17	obstruct	obstruct	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 exhibit	conj
18	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	17 obstruct	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	exhibit	present	Elephants	a innate terror of mice	vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent terror=Theme
2	enter	may	a innate terror of mice	the trunk	vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme trunk=Destination
3	obstruct	present	Elephants not said here	trunk	vn discourage-64.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer it=Eventuality

Option 2

Elephants deliberately trample every rodent they encounter

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Elephants	elephant	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 trample	nsubj
2	deliberately	deliberately	ADV	_	3 trample	advmod
3	trample	trample	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	5 rodent	det
5	rodent	rodent	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 trample	obj
6	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 encounter	nsubj
7	encounter	encounter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 rodent	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	trample	present	Elephants	every rodent				deliberately property	tree rules
2	encounter	present	Elephants = elephant	every rodent not said here					vn encounter-30.5 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer rodent=Stimulus

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Elephants are startled by any abrupt movement near their feet, not by mice as such

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Elephants	elephant	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 startled	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 startled	aux:pass
3	startled	startle	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	7 movement	case
5	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	7 movement	det
6	abrupt	abrupt	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 movement	amod
7	movement	movement	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 startled	obl
8	near	near	ADP	_	10 feet	case
9	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 feet	nmod:poss
10	feet	foot	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 startled	obl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 mice	punct
12	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	14 mice	advmod
13	by	by	ADP	_	14 mice	case
14	mice	mouse	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 startled	obl
15	as	as	ADP	_	16 such	case
16	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 startled	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	startle	present · passive	any abrupt movement	Elephants		Elephants's feet		by mice; as such	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus subject=Experiencer

Option 4

Elephants are incapable of perceiving animals of small size

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Elephants	elephant	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 incapable	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 incapable	cop
3	incapable	incapable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	of	of	SCONJ	_	5 perceiving	mark
5	perceiving	perceive	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 incapable	advcl
6	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 perceiving	obj
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 size	case
8	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 size	amod
9	size	size	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 animals	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Elephants					incapable property	tree rules
2	perceive	gerund	Elephants not said here	animals of small size					vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S»: agent=Experiencer animal=Stimulus

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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