Exam question 4 · Ants of the world: weaver ants, bullet ants, honeypot ants…

Ascertain the principal reason for which small animals such as ants may carry loads many times their own weight.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, small animals · What happens: ascertain, carry · To what, where: principal reason, loads

This is exam question 4 of lesson 304 «Ants of the world: weaver ants, bullet ants, honeypot ants and trap-jaw ants» 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	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	13 carry	obl
7	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 animals	amod
8	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 carry	nsubj
9	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos ExtPos=ADP	11 ants	case
10	as	as	ADP	_	9 such	fixed
11	ants	ant	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 animals	nmod
12	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 carry	aux
13	carry	carry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 reason	acl:relcl
14	loads	load	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 carry	obj
15	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 times	amod
16	times	time	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 carry	obl:unmarked
17	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	19 weight	nmod:poss
18	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 weight	amod
19	weight	weight	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 carry	obj
20	.	.	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 reason					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	carry	may	small animals such ants	loads			time	for the principal reason	vn cost-54.2 «NP V NP NP»: agent=Theme load=Beneficiary weight=Value

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

Ants possess metallic reinforcement within the joints of their legs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ants	ant	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 possess	nsubj
2	possess	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	metallic	metallic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reinforcement	amod
4	reinforcement	reinforcement	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 possess	obj
5	within	within	ADP	_	7 joints	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 joints	det
7	joints	joint	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 possess	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 legs	case
9	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 legs	nmod:poss
10	legs	leg	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 joints	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	Ants	metallic reinforcement				within the joints of Ants's legs	vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot reinforcement=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Ants consume exceptionally nourishing food

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ants	ant	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 consume	nsubj
2	consume	consume	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	exceptionally	exceptionally	ADV	_	2 consume	advmod
4	nourishing	nourishing	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 food	amod
5	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 consume	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	consume	present	Ants	nourishing food				exceptionally property	vn consume-66 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent food=Asset

Option 3

The loads carried by ants are always hollow

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 loads	det
2	loads	load	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 hollow	nsubj
3	carried	carry	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 loads	acl
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 ants	case
5	ants	ant	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 carried	obl
6	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 hollow	cop
7	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	8 hollow	advmod
8	hollow	hollow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	carry	participle		the loads not said here				by ants	vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	is	present	the loads					always, hollow property	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Weight diminishes more rapidly than strength as body size decreases

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Weight	weight	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 diminishes	nsubj
2	diminishes	diminish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	4 rapidly	advmod
4	rapidly	rapidly	ADV	_	2 diminishes	advmod
5	than	than	ADP	_	6 strength	case
6	strength	strength	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 diminishes	obl
7	as	as	ADP	_	10 decreases	case
8	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 size	compound
9	size	size	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 decreases	compound
10	decreases	decrease	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 diminishes	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	diminish	present	Weight					than strength; as size decreases; rapidly property	vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient

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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