Exam question 2 · Snakes and lizards

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the mechanism whereby a snake ingests prey larger than its head?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: snake · What happens: follow, characteris, ingest · To what, where: mechanism, prey

This is exam question 2 of lesson 30 «Snakes and lizards» 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 mechanism	det
10	mechanism	mechanism	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	whereby	whereby	ADV	PronType=Int	14 ingests	advmod
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 snake	det
13	snake	snake	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 ingests	nsubj
14	ingests	ingest	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 mechanism	acl:relcl
15	prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 ingests	obj
16	larger	large	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	14 ingests	xcomp
17	than	than	ADP	_	19 head	case
18	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	19 head	nmod:poss
19	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 larger	obl
20	?	?	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 mechanism	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	ingest	present	a snake	prey	large, whereby property	vn absorb-39.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Goal prey=Theme

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 prey is dissolved externally

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 prey	det
2	prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 dissolved	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 dissolved	aux:pass
4	dissolved	dissolve	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	externally	externally	ADV	_	4 dissolved	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dissolve	present · passive		the prey				externally property	vn break-45.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 2

The prey is first chewed into portions

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 prey	det
2	prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 chewed	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 chewed	aux:pass
4	first	first	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	5 chewed	advmod
5	chewed	chew	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	into	into	ADP	_	7 portions	case
7	portions	portion	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 chewed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	chew	present · passive		the prey		portions		first property	vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The halves of the lower jaw are joined by elastic tissue that stretches

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 halves	det
2	halves	half	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 joined	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 jaw	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 jaw	det
5	lower	low	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	6 jaw	amod
6	jaw	jaw	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 halves	nmod
7	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 joined	aux:pass
8	joined	join	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
9	by	by	ADP	_	11 tissue	case
10	elastic	elastic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 tissue	amod
11	tissue	tissue	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 joined	obl
12	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	13 stretches	nsubj
13	stretches	stretch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 tissue	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	join	present · passive	elastic tissue	the halves of the lower jaw					vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient
2	stretch	present	elastic tissue						vn bend-45.2 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 4

The jaw is detached from the skull and later reattached when it has finished

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 jaw	det
2	jaw	jaw	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 detached	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 detached	aux:pass
4	detached	detach	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	from	from	ADP	_	7 skull	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 skull	det
7	skull	skull	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 detached	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 reattached	cc
9	later	late	ADV	Degree=Cmp	10 reattached	advmod
10	reattached	reattach	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 detached	conj
11	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	14 finished	advmod
12	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 finished	nsubj:pass
13	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 finished	aux
14	finished	finish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 detached	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	detach	present · passive	the jaw	from the skull	vn disassemble-23.3 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: subject=Patient from skull=Co-Patient
2	reattach	past		late property	tree rules
3	finish	present · perfect · passive	jaw		vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: subject=Eventuality

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/30-snakes-and-lizards/e2/