Exam question 1 · Frogs, toads, newts and salamanders

Identify the principal reason for which amphibians are especially susceptible to pollution of their habitat.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, amphibians · What happens: identify, be, pollute · To what, where: principal reason, habitat

This is exam question 1 of lesson 32 «Frogs, toads, newts and salamanders» 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 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 susceptible	obl
7	amphibians	amphibian	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 susceptible	nsubj
8	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 susceptible	cop
9	especially	especially	ADV	_	10 susceptible	advmod
10	susceptible	susceptible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	acl
11	to	to	ADP	_	12 pollution	case
12	pollution	pollution	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 susceptible	obl
13	of	of	ADP	_	15 habitat	case
14	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 habitat	nmod:poss
15	habitat	habitat	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 pollution	nmod
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	is	present	amphibians		for the principal reason; to pollution of amphibians's habitat; especially, susceptible property	tree rules
3	pollute			amphibians's habitat		nom pollution «state transitive»: of=patient

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

They feed exclusively upon pollutants found in the water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 feed	nsubj
2	feed	feed	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	exclusively	exclusively	ADV	_	2 feed	advmod
4	upon	upon	ADP	_	5 pollutants	case
5	pollutants	pollutant	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 feed	obl
6	found	find	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 pollutants	acl
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 water	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 water	det
9	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 found	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	feed	present	They					upon pollutants; exclusively property	vn gorge-39.6 «NP V PP.patient»: agent=Agent
2	find	participle		pollutants not said here		the water			vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Their thin, moist skin readily absorbs substances

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 skin	nmod:poss
2	thin	thin	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 skin	amod
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 thin	punct
4	moist	moist	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 skin	amod
5	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 absorbs	nsubj
6	readily	readily	ADV	_	7 absorbs	advmod
7	absorbs	absorb	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	substances	substance	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 absorbs	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	absorb	present	Their thin moist skin	substances				readily property	vn absorb-39.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Goal substance=Theme

Option 3

They possess no lungs at any stage

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	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 lungs	det
4	lungs	lung	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 possess	obj
5	at	at	ADP	_	7 stage	case
6	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	7 stage	det
7	stage	stage	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 possess	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	They	no lungs		any stage			vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot lung=Theme

Option 4

They are unable to leave the water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	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 leave	mark
5	leave	leave	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 unable	xcomp
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 water	det
7	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 leave	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	They					unable property	tree rules
2	leave	to-infinitive	They not said here	the water					vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent water=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/32-frogs-toads-newts-and-salamanders/e1/