Exam question 1 · Rodents: the biggest group of mammals and their ever-growi…

Identify the principal characteristic by which rodents are distinguished from other mammals.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, principal characteristic · What happens: identify, distinguish · To what, where: principal characteristic, rodents

This is exam question 1 of lesson 316 «Rodents: the biggest group of mammals and their ever-growing teeth» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 characteristic	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 characteristic	amod
4	characteristic	characteristic	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 distinguished	obl
7	rodents	rodent	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 distinguished	nsubj
8	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 distinguished	aux:pass
9	distinguished	distinguish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 characteristic	acl:relcl
10	from	from	ADP	_	12 mammals	case
11	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 mammals	amod
12	mammals	mammal	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 distinguished	obl
13	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal characteristic					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent characteristic=Theme
2	distinguish	present · passive	the principal characteristic	rodents				from other mammals	vn distinguish-23.5-1 «NP V NP.theme PP.co-theme»: agent=Agent subject=Theme from mammal=Co-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

Four pairs of incisors in the upper jaw

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Four	four	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	2 pairs	nummod
2	pairs	pair	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 incisors	case
4	incisors	incisor	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 pairs	nmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	8 jaw	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 jaw	det
7	upper	upper	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 jaw	amod
8	jaw	jaw	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pairs	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2

Long canine teeth adapted for seizing prey

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 teeth	amod
2	canine	canine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 teeth	amod
3	teeth	tooth	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 adapted	nsubj
4	adapted	adapt	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	for	for	SCONJ	_	6 seizing	mark
6	seizing	seize	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 adapted	advcl
7	prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 seizing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	adapt	past	Long canine teeth						vn adjust-26.9 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent
2	seize	gerund	Long canine teeth not said here	prey					vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent prey=Theme

Option 3

The complete absence of teeth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 absence	det
2	complete	complete	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 absence	amod
3	absence	absence	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 teeth	case
5	teeth	tooth	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 absence	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	absent			teeth					nom absence «state transitive»: of=patient

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

A single pair of continuously growing incisors in each jaw

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 pair	det
2	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 pair	amod
3	pair	pair	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	SCONJ	_	6 growing	mark
5	continuously	continuously	ADV	_	6 growing	advmod
6	growing	grow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 pair	acl
7	incisors	incisor	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 growing	obj
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 jaw	case
9	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	10 jaw	det
10	jaw	jaw	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 growing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	gerund	a single pair not said here	incisors		each jaw		continuously property	vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location incisor=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/316-rodents-the-biggest-group-of-mammals-and-their-ever-growing-teeth/e1/