Exam question 4 · Turtles and tortoises

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the dentition of turtles.

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

This is exam question 4 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	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 dentition	det
11	dentition	dentition	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 turtles	case
13	turtles	turtle	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 dentition	nmod
14	.	.	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 dentition of turtles		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus dentition=Experiencer

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

Turtles possess a full set of molars

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Turtles	turtle	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 possess	nsubj
2	possess	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 set	det
4	full	full	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 set	amod
5	set	set	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 possess	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 molars	case
7	molars	molar	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 set	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	Turtles	a full set of molars					vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot set=Theme

Option 2

Turtles possess teeth upon the tongue, but none in the jaws

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Turtles	turtle	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 possess	nsubj
2	possess	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	teeth	tooth	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 possess	obj
4	upon	upon	ADP	_	6 tongue	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 tongue	det
6	tongue	tongue	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 possess	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 none	punct
8	but	but	CCONJ	_	9 none	cc
9	none	none	PRON	PronType=Neg	2 possess	parataxis
10	in	in	ADP	_	12 jaws	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 jaws	det
12	jaws	jaw	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 none	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	Turtles	teeth				upon the tongue	vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot tooth=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Turtles possess no teeth, but a keratinous beak

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Turtles	turtle	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 possess	nsubj
2	possess	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 teeth	det
4	teeth	tooth	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 possess	obj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 beak	punct
6	but	but	CCONJ	_	9 beak	cc
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 beak	det
8	keratinous	keratinous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 beak	amod
9	beak	beak	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 possess	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	Turtles	no teeth				a keratinous beak obl	vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot tooth=Theme

Option 4

Turtles possess teeth only in youth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Turtles	turtle	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 possess	nsubj
2	possess	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	teeth	tooth	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 possess	obj
4	only	only	ADV	_	6 youth	advmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 youth	case
6	youth	youth	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 possess	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	Turtles	teeth		youth			vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot tooth=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.

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