Exam question 4 · How owls work: silent wings, turning heads, pellets and ow…

Ascertain the reason for which an owl obtains sufficient water without frequent drinking.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, owl · What happens: ascertain, obtain · To what, where: reason, sufficient water

This is exam question 4 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 obtains	obl
6	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 owl	det
7	owl	owl	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 obtains	nsubj
8	obtains	obtain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	acl
9	sufficient	sufficient	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 water	amod
10	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 obtains	obj
11	without	without	ADP	_	13 drinking	case
12	frequent	frequent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 drinking	amod
13	drinking	drinking	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 obtains	obl
14	.	.	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 reason					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	obtain	present	a owl	sufficient water				for the reason; without frequent drinking	vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP PP.asset»: agent=Agent water=Theme for which=Asset

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

Owls drink only once in each season

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Owls	owl	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 drink	nsubj
2	drink	drink	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	only	only	ADV	_	4 once	advmod
4	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	2 drink	advmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 season	case
6	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	7 season	det
7	season	season	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 drink	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drink	present	Owls				season	once property	vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Owls require no water whatever for survival

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Owls	owl	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 require	nsubj
2	require	require	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 water	det
4	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 whatever	nsubj
5	whatever	whatever	PRON	PronType=Rel	2 require	obj
6	for	for	ADP	_	7 survival	case
7	survival	survival	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 require	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	require	present	Owls	whatever				for survival	vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme whatever=Precondition

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The bodies of its prey consist largely of water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 bodies	det
2	bodies	body	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 consist	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 prey	case
4	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 prey	nmod:poss
5	prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 bodies	nmod
6	consist	consist	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	largely	largely	ADV	_	6 consist	advmod
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 water	case
9	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 consist	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	consist	present	the bodies of its prey					of water; largely property	tree rules

Option 4

Owls absorb water through their feathers from the air

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Owls	owl	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 absorb	nsubj
2	absorb	absorb	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 absorb	obj
4	through	through	ADP	_	6 feathers	case
5	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 feathers	nmod:poss
6	feathers	feather	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 absorb	obl
7	from	from	ADP	_	9 air	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 air	det
9	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 absorb	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	absorb	present	Owls	water		Owls's feathers		from the air	vn absorb-39.8 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Goal water=Theme from air=Source

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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