Exam question 1 · Turtles and tortoises

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the relation of a turtle's shell to its skeleton?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: relation

This is exam question 1 of lesson 31 «Turtles and tortoises» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 relation	det
10	relation	relation	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	15 shell	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 turtle	det
13	turtle	turtle	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 shell	nmod:poss
14	's	's	PART	_	13 turtle	case
15	shell	shell	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 relation	nmod
16	to	to	ADP	_	18 skeleton	case
17	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	18 skeleton	nmod:poss
18	skeleton	skeleton	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obl
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the relation of a turtle's shell				of the following statements; to shell's skeleton; accurately property	tree rules

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

The shell is acquired from another animal and may be exchanged for a larger one

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 shell	det
2	shell	shell	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 acquired	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 acquired	aux:pass
4	acquired	acquire	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	from	from	ADP	_	7 animal	case
6	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	7 animal	det
7	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 acquired	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 exchanged	cc
9	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 exchanged	aux
10	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	11 exchanged	aux:pass
11	exchanged	exchange	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 acquired	conj
12	for	for	ADP	_	15 one	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 one	det
14	larger	large	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	15 one	amod
15	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 exchanged	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	acquire	present · passive		the shell				from another animal	vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: subject=Theme from animal=Source
2	exchange	may · passive						for a larger one	vn exchange-13.6.1 «NP V NP PP.co-theme»: for one=Co-Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

The shell is a detachable covering shed annually

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 shell	det
2	shell	shell	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 covering	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 covering	cop
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 covering	det
5	detachable	detachable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 covering	amod
6	covering	covering	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	shed	shed	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 covering	acl
8	annually	annually	ADV	_	7 shed	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the shell	a detachable covering					tree rules
2	shed	participle		a detachable covering not said here				annually property	vn substance_emission-43.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Source

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The shell is joined to the ribs and backbone and cannot be removed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 shell	det
2	shell	shell	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 joined	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 joined	aux:pass
4	joined	join	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 ribs	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 ribs	det
7	ribs	rib	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 joined	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 backbone	cc
9	backbone	backbone	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 ribs	conj
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 removed	cc
11	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	14 removed	aux
12	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	14 removed	advmod
13	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	14 removed	aux:pass
14	removed	remove	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 joined	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	join	present · passive		the shell				to the ribs and backbone	vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: subject=Patient to rib=Co-Patient
2	not remove	can · passive							vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»

Option 4

The shell is a secretion bearing no relation to the skeleton

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 shell	det
2	shell	shell	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 secretion	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 secretion	cop
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 secretion	det
5	secretion	secretion	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	bearing	bear	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 secretion	acl
7	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	8 relation	det
8	relation	relation	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 bearing	obj
9	to	to	ADP	_	11 skeleton	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 skeleton	det
11	skeleton	skeleton	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 bearing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the shell	a secretion					tree rules
2	bear	gerund	a secretion not said here	no relation				to the skeleton	vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent relation=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/31-turtles-and-tortoises/e1/