Exam question 4 · Rodents: the biggest group of mammals and their ever-growi…

Ascertain the consequence of a failure of a rodent's incisors to meet correctly.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, incisors · What happens: ascertain, meet, fail · To what, where: consequence

This is exam question 4 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 consequence	det
3	consequence	consequence	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 failure	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 failure	det
6	failure	failure	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 consequence	nmod
7	of	of	ADP	_	11 incisors	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 rodent	det
9	rodent	rodent	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 incisors	nmod:poss
10	's	's	PART	_	9 rodent	case
11	incisors	incisor	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 failure	nmod
12	to	to	PART	_	13 meet	mark
13	meet	meet	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Ascertain	advcl
14	correctly	correctly	ADV	_	13 meet	advmod
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the consequence of a failure of a rodent's incisors		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent consequence=Topic
2	meet	to-infinitive	you not said here		correctly property	vn meet-36.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	fail		a rodent's incisors			nom failure «act intransitive»: of=agent

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

The animal grows a further pair of incisors to compensate

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 animal	det
2	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 grows	nsubj
3	grows	grow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 pair	det
5	further	further	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 pair	amod
6	pair	pair	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 grows	obj
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 incisors	case
8	incisors	incisor	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 pair	nmod
9	to	to	PART	_	10 compensate	mark
10	compensate	compensate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 grows	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	present	the animal	a further pair of incisors					vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location pair=Theme
2	compensate	to-infinitive	the animal not said here						vn equip-13.4.2-1-1 «NP.theme V NP»: agent=Theme

Option 2

No consequence arises, as rodent incisors do not grow

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	DET	PronType=Neg	2 consequence	det
2	consequence	consequence	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 arises	nsubj
3	arises	arise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 grow	punct
5	as	as	SCONJ	_	10 grow	mark
6	rodent	rodent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 incisors	amod
7	incisors	incisor	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 grow	nsubj
8	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 grow	aux
9	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	10 grow	advmod
10	grow	grow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 arises	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	arise	present	no consequence						vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	not grow	present · do-support	rodent incisors						vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

The incisors cease to grow and are gradually replaced by additional molars from behind

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 incisors	det
2	incisors	incisor	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 cease	nsubj
3	cease	cease	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 grow	mark
5	grow	grow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 cease	xcomp
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 replaced	cc
7	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 replaced	aux:pass
8	gradually	gradually	ADV	_	9 replaced	advmod
9	replaced	replace	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 cease	conj
10	by	by	ADP	_	12 molars	case
11	additional	additional	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 molars	amod
12	molars	molar	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 replaced	obl
13	from	from	ADP	_	14 behind	case
14	behind	behind	ADV	_	9 replaced	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	cease	present	the incisors		vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality
2	grow	to-infinitive	the incisors not said here		vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	replace	present · passive	additional molars	gradually property	vn substitute-13.6.2-1 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The incisors continue to grow unchecked and may curl, impeding feeding

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 incisors	det
2	incisors	incisor	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 continue	nsubj
3	continue	continue	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 grow	mark
5	grow	grow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 continue	xcomp
6	unchecked	unchecked	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 grow	xcomp
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 curl	cc
8	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 curl	aux
9	curl	curl	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 continue	conj
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 impeding	punct
11	impeding	impede	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	9 curl	advcl
12	feeding	feeding	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 impeding	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	continue	present	the incisors			vn continue-55.3 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
2	grow	to-infinitive	the incisors not said here		unchecked property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	curl	may	the incisors not said here			vn coil-9.6-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Theme
4	impede	gerund	the incisors not said here	feeding		vn discourage-64.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer feeding=Eventuality

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/e4/