Exam question 4 · Animals in the news: true stories, fakes and how to read t…

Ascertain the principal reason for which reports of attacks by animals upon persons attract extensive coverage.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, persons · What happens: ascertain, attract, report · To what, where: principal reason, extensive coverage, attacks

This is exam question 4 of lesson 296 «Animals in the news: true stories, fakes and how to read them» 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	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	7 reports	case
6	which	which	DET	PronType=Int	7 reports	det
7	reports	report	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 reason	nmod
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 attacks	case
9	attacks	attack	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 reports	nmod
10	by	by	ADP	_	11 animals	case
11	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Ascertain	obl
12	upon	upon	SCONJ	_	14 attract	mark
13	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 attract	nsubj
14	attract	attract	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Ascertain	advcl
15	extensive	extensive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 coverage	amod
16	coverage	coverage	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 attract	obj
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason	for which reports of attacks; by animals	vn ensure-99 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Precondition reason=Theme for report=Beneficiary
2	attract	present	persons	extensive coverage		vn lure-59.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent coverage=Patient
3	report			attacks		nom report «communication transitive»: of=patient

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 right answer

Such attacks are rare, and rare events are deemed newsworthy

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 attacks	amod
2	attacks	attack	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 rare	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 rare	cop
4	rare	rare	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 deemed	punct
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 deemed	cc
7	rare	rare	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 events	amod
8	events	event	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 deemed	nsubj
9	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 deemed	aux:pass
10	deemed	deem	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 rare	parataxis
11	newsworthy	newsworthy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 deemed	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Such attacks					rare property	tree rules
2	deem	present · passive		rare events				newsworthy property	vn consider-29.9-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Attribute

Option 2

Such attacks are required by law to be reported in newspapers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 attacks	amod
2	attacks	attack	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 required	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 required	aux:pass
4	required	require	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 law	case
6	law	law	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 required	obl
7	to	to	PART	_	9 reported	mark
8	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	9 reported	aux:pass
9	reported	report	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 required	advcl
10	in	in	ADP	_	11 newspapers	case
11	newspapers	newspaper	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 reported	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	require	present · passive	law	Such attacks					vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme subject=Precondition
2	report	to-infinitive · passive	law not said here			newspapers			vn characterize-29.2-1-2 «NP V NP»

Option 3

Such attacks constitute the commonest cause of injury

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 attacks	amod
2	attacks	attack	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 constitute	nsubj
3	constitute	constitute	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 cause	det
5	commonest	common	ADJ	Degree=Sup	6 cause	amod
6	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 constitute	obj
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 injury	case
8	injury	injury	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 cause	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	constitute	present	Such attacks	the commonest cause of injury					vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme cause=Pivot
2	cause			injury					nom cause «event transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

Such attacks are invariably perpetrated by sharks

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 attacks	amod
2	attacks	attack	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 perpetrated	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 perpetrated	aux:pass
4	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	5 perpetrated	advmod
5	perpetrated	perpetrate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	by	by	ADP	_	7 sharks	case
7	sharks	shark	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 perpetrated	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	perpetrate	present · passive	sharks	Such attacks				invariably property	tree rules

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/296-animals-in-the-news-true-stories-fakes-and-how-to-read-them/e4/