Exam question 3 · Snakes to keep away from: cobras, mambas, vipers and rattl…

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the behaviour of a cobra before a snake charmer?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: behaviour

This is exam question 3 of lesson 322 «Snakes to keep away from: cobras, mambas, vipers and rattlesnakes» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 behaviour	det
10	behaviour	behaviour	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 cobra	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 cobra	det
13	cobra	cobra	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 behaviour	nmod
14	before	before	ADP	_	17 charmer	case
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 charmer	det
16	snake	snake	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 charmer	compound
17	charmer	charmer	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obl
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the behaviour of a cobra			before a snake charmer	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules

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

It is asleep and sways involuntarily

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 asleep	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 asleep	cop
3	asleep	asleep	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 sways	cc
5	sways	sway	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 asleep	conj
6	involuntarily	involuntarily	ADV	_	5 sways	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					asleep property	tree rules
2	sway	present						involuntarily property	vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

It responds with evident pleasure to the music and moves in time to it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 responds	nsubj
2	responds	respond	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	with	with	ADP	_	5 pleasure	case
4	evident	evident	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 pleasure	amod
5	pleasure	pleasure	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 responds	obl
6	to	to	ADP	_	8 music	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 music	det
8	music	music	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 responds	obl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 moves	cc
10	moves	move	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 responds	conj
11	in	in	ADP	_	12 time	case
12	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 moves	obl
13	to	to	ADP	_	14 it	case
14	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 moves	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	respond speech: other	present	It					with evident pleasure; to the music	vn respond-113 «NP V PP.theme PP.predicate»: agent=Agent with pleasure=Eventuality to music=Theme
2	move	present				music	time		vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme to it=Trajectory

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

It follows the movement of the pipe as though it were a threat

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 follows	nsubj
2	follows	follow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 movement	det
4	movement	movement	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 follows	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 pipe	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 pipe	det
7	pipe	pipe	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 movement	nmod
8	as	as	ADV	_	13 threat	advmod
9	though	though	SCONJ	_	13 threat	mark
10	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 threat	nsubj
11	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 threat	cop
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 threat	det
13	threat	threat	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 follows	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	follow	present	It	the movement of the pipe	vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent movement=Theme
2	is a	past	movement	a threat	tree rules
3	move			the pipe	nom movement «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

It performs a dance learnt from its keeper

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 performs	nsubj
2	performs	perform	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 dance	det
4	dance	dance	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 performs	obj
5	learnt	learn	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 dance	acl
6	from	from	ADP	_	8 keeper	case
7	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 keeper	nmod:poss
8	keeper	keeper	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 learnt	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	perform	present	It	a dance					vn performance-26.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dance=Theme
2	learn	participle		a dance not said here		dance's keeper			vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V PP.source»: agent=Agent from keeper=Source

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/322-snakes-to-keep-away-from-cobras-mambas-vipers-and-rattlesnakes/e3/