Exam question 4 · Frogs and toads near home: spawn, croaking choruses, toad…

Ascertain the reason for which a garden pond intended for frogs ought to contain no fish.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, garden pond · What happens: ascertain, intend, contain · To what, where: reason, garden pond, fish

This is exam question 4 of lesson 309 «Frogs and toads near home: spawn, croaking choruses, toad crossings and the fire-bellied toad» 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	14 contain	obl
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 pond	det
7	garden	garden	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 pond	compound
8	pond	pond	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 contain	nsubj
9	intended	intend	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 pond	acl
10	for	for	ADP	_	11 frogs	case
11	frogs	frog	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 intended	obl
12	ought	ought	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	14 contain	aux
13	to	to	PART	_	14 contain	mark
14	contain	contain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 reason	acl
15	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	16 fish	det
16	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 contain	obj
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the reason		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	intend	participle		a garden pond not said here	for frogs	vn intend-61.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent
3	contain	ought	a garden pond	no fish	for the reason	vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot fish=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

Fish raise the temperature of the water excessively

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 raise	nsubj
2	raise	raise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 temperature	det
4	temperature	temperature	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 raise	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 water	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 water	det
7	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 temperature	nmod
8	excessively	excessively	ADV	_	2 raise	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	raise	present	Fish	the temperature of the water				excessively property	vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent temperature=Theme

Option 2

Fish obstruct the mating calls of male frogs at night

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 obstruct	nsubj
2	obstruct	obstruct	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 calls	det
4	mating	mating	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 calls	compound
5	calls	call	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 obstruct	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 frogs	case
7	male	male	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 frogs	amod
8	frogs	frog	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 calls	nmod
9	at	at	ADP	_	10 night	case
10	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 obstruct	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	obstruct	present	Fish	the mating calls of male frogs			night		vn discourage-64.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer call=Eventuality
2	call			male frogs					nom call «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Fish are consumed in excessive numbers by adult frogs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 consumed	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 consumed	aux:pass
3	consumed	consume	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 numbers	case
5	excessive	excessive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 numbers	amod
6	numbers	number	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 consumed	obl
7	by	by	ADP	_	9 frogs	case
8	adult	adult	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 frogs	amod
9	frogs	frog	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 consumed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	consume	present · passive	adult frogs	Fish		excessive numbers			vn consume-66 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Asset

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Fish consume the spawn and tadpoles of frogs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 consume	nsubj
2	consume	consume	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 spawn	det
4	spawn	spawn	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 consume	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 tadpoles	cc
6	tadpoles	tadpole	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 spawn	conj
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 frogs	case
8	frogs	frog	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 tadpoles	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	consume	present	Fish	the spawn and tadpoles of frogs					vn consume-66 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spawn=Asset

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/309-frogs-and-toads-near-home-spawn-croaking-choruses-toad-crossings-and-the-fire-bellied-toad/e4/