Exam question 4 · Bats near home: pipistrelles, noctules, bat boxes and why…

Ascertain the reason for which the loss of a single summer roost may harm a local bat population.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, loss · What happens: ascertain, harm · To what, where: reason, local bat population

This is exam question 4 of lesson 315 «Bats near home: pipistrelles, noctules, bat boxes and why never to pick one up» 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 harm	obl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 loss	det
7	loss	loss	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 harm	nsubj
8	of	of	ADP	_	12 roost	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 roost	det
10	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 roost	amod
11	summer	summer	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 roost	compound
12	roost	roost	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 loss	nmod
13	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	14 harm	aux
14	harm	harm	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 reason	acl:relcl
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 population	det
16	local	local	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 population	amod
17	bat	bat	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 population	compound
18	population	population	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 harm	obj
19	.	.	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	harm	may	the loss of a single summer roost	a local bat population				for the reason	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus population=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

Bats lay numerous eggs which require a specific roof

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Bats	bat	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 lay	nsubj
2	lay	lay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	numerous	numerous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 eggs	amod
4	eggs	egg	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 lay	obj
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 require	nsubj
6	require	require	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 eggs	acl:relcl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 roof	det
8	specific	specific	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 roof	amod
9	roof	roof	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 require	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lay	present	Bats	numerous eggs					vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent egg=Result
2	require	present	numerous eggs	a specific roof					vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme roof=Precondition

Option 2

Roosts are the sole location in which bats are able to feed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Roosts	roost	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 location	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 location	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 location	det
4	sole	sole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 location	amod
5	location	location	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 which	case
7	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 able	obl
8	bats	bat	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 able	nsubj
9	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 able	cop
10	able	able	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 location	advcl
11	to	to	PART	_	12 feed	mark
12	feed	feed	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 able	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	is a	present	Roosts	the sole location			tree rules
2	is	present	bats		the sole location	able property	tree rules
3	feed	to-infinitive	bats not said here				vn gorge-39.6 «NP V PP.patient»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Females gather there to raise usually a single young per year, so losses are slowly replaced

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Females	female	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 gather	nsubj
2	gather	gather	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	2 gather	advmod
4	to	to	PART	_	5 raise	mark
5	raise	raise	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 gather	advcl
6	usually	usually	ADV	_	9 young	advmod
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 young	det
8	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 young	amod
9	young	young	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 raise	ccomp
10	per	per	ADP	_	11 year	case
11	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 young	obl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 replaced	punct
13	so	so	ADV	_	17 replaced	advmod
14	losses	loss	NOUN	Number=Plur	17 replaced	nsubj:pass
15	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	17 replaced	aux:pass
16	slowly	slowly	ADV	_	17 replaced	advmod
17	replaced	replace	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 gather	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	gather	present	Females		there		vn herd-47.5.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	raise	to-infinitive	Females not said here				vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	replace	present · passive		losses		slowly property	vn substitute-13.6.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Co-Theme

Option 4

Bats are unable to fly without the shelter of a building

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Bats	bat	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 unable	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 unable	cop
3	unable	unable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 fly	mark
5	fly	fly	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 unable	xcomp
6	without	without	ADP	_	8 shelter	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 shelter	det
8	shelter	shelter	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 fly	obl
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 building	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 building	det
11	building	building	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 shelter	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Bats					unable property	tree rules
2	fly	to-infinitive	Bats not said here					without the shelter of a building	vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/315-bats-near-home-pipistrelles-noctules-bat-boxes-and-why-never-to-pick-one-up/e4/