Exam question 3 · Snakes and lizards

Ascertain the principal purpose for which the chameleon alters its colouration.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, chameleon · What happens: ascertain, alter · To what, where: principal purpose, colouration

This is exam question 3 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 purpose	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 purpose	amod
4	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 alters	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 chameleon	det
8	chameleon	chameleon	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 alters	nsubj
9	alters	alter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 purpose	acl:relcl
10	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 colouration	nmod:poss
11	colouration	colouration	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 alters	obj
12	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the principal purpose					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent purpose=Topic
2	alter	present	the chameleon	chameleon's colouration				for the principal purpose	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent colouration=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

Concealment against every possible background in which it finds itself

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Concealment	concealment	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	against	against	ADP	_	5 background	case
3	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	5 background	det
4	possible	possible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 background	amod
5	background	background	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Concealment	nmod
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 which	case
7	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 finds	obl
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 finds	nsubj
9	finds	find	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 background	acl:relcl
10	itself	itself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	9 finds	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	find	present	background	background		every possible background			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent itself=Topic

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The signalling of mood and the regulation of temperature

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 signalling	det
2	signalling	signalling	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 mood	case
4	mood	mood	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 signalling	nmod
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 regulation	cc
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 regulation	det
7	regulation	regulation	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 signalling	conj
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 temperature	case
9	temperature	temperature	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 regulation	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	regulate			temperature					nom regulation «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

The attraction of rainfall

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 attraction	det
2	attraction	attraction	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 rainfall	case
4	rainfall	rainfall	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 attraction	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	attract			rainfall					nom attraction «phenomenon transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

The deterrence of the Sun

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 deterrence	det
2	deterrence	deterrence	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 Sun	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 Sun	det
5	Sun	Sun	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 deterrence	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/30-snakes-and-lizards/e3/