Exam question 2 · How owls work: silent wings, turning heads, pellets and ow…

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the rotation of the head of an owl.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts, head · What happens: select, establish, concern, rotate · To what, where: response, rotation

This is exam question 2 of lesson 302 «How owls work: silent wings, turning heads, pellets and owl myths» 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 rotation	det
11	rotation	rotation	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 head	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 head	det
14	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 rotation	nmod
15	of	of	ADP	_	17 owl	case
16	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 owl	det
17	owl	owl	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 head	nmod
18	.	.	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 rotation of the head of a owl		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus rotation=Experiencer
4	rotate		the head of a owl			nom rotation «act 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 · ← Mova's choice

The head may be rotated without limit through repeated complete circles

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 head	det
2	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 rotated	nsubj:pass
3	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 rotated	aux
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 rotated	aux:pass
5	rotated	rotate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	without	without	ADP	_	7 limit	case
7	limit	limit	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 rotated	obl
8	through	through	ADP	_	11 circles	case
9	repeated	repeat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 circles	amod
10	complete	complete	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 circles	amod
11	circles	circle	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 rotated	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	rotate	may · passive		the head		repeated complete circles		without limit	vn coil-9.6 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Theme through circle=Destination
2	repeat	participle							vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality

Option 2

The head is incapable of any rotation whatsoever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 head	det
2	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 incapable	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 incapable	cop
4	incapable	incapable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 rotation	case
6	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	7 rotation	det
7	rotation	rotation	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 incapable	obl
8	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	4 incapable	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the head					of any rotation; incapable, whatsoever property	tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The head may be rotated approximately two hundred and seventy degrees, but not through a complete circle

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 head	det
2	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 rotated	nsubj:pass
3	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 rotated	aux
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 rotated	aux:pass
5	rotated	rotate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	approximately	approximately	ADV	_	8 hundred	advmod
7	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	8 hundred	compound
8	hundred	hundred	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	11 degrees	nummod
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 seventy	cc
10	seventy	seventy	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	8 hundred	conj
11	degrees	degree	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 rotated	obl:unmarked
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 circle	punct
13	but	but	CCONJ	_	18 circle	cc
14	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	18 circle	advmod
15	through	through	ADP	_	18 circle	case
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 circle	det
17	complete	complete	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 circle	amod
18	circle	circle	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 rotated	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	rotate	may · passive		the head		a complete circle		hundred degrees obl:unmarked	vn coil-9.6 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Theme through circle=Destination

Option 4

The head may be rotated only ninety degrees in each direction

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 head	det
2	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 rotated	nsubj:pass
3	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 rotated	aux
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 rotated	aux:pass
5	rotated	rotate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	only	only	ADV	_	7 ninety	advmod
7	ninety	ninety	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	8 degrees	nummod
8	degrees	degree	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 rotated	obl:unmarked
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 direction	case
10	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	11 direction	det
11	direction	direction	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 rotated	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	rotate	may · passive		the head		each direction		ninety degrees obl:unmarked	vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme

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/302-how-owls-work-silent-wings-turning-heads-pellets-and-owl-myths/e2/