Exam question 2 · A kitten at home: litter trays, scratching posts and play

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the eye colour of newborn kittens.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts · What happens: select, establish, concern · To what, where: response, eye colour

This is exam question 2 of lesson 327 «A kitten at home: litter trays, scratching posts and play» 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	xcomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 facts	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 facts	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 facts	amod
8	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 facts	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 colour	det
11	eye	eye	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 colour	compound
12	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
13	of	of	ADP	_	15 kittens	case
14	newborn	newborn	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 kittens	amod
15	kittens	kitten	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 colour	nmod
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response	consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the eye colour of newborn kittens		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus colour=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

Kittens are born with their eyes open and brown

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Kittens	kitten	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 born	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 born	aux:pass
3	born	bear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	with	with	ADP	_	6 eyes	case
5	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 eyes	nmod:poss
6	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 born	obl
7	open	open	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 born	xcomp
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 brown	cc
9	brown	brown	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 open	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	bear	present · passive		Kittens				with Kittens's eyes; open property	vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 2

Kittens possess green eyes at birth which become blue

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Kittens	kitten	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 possess	nsubj
2	possess	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	green	green	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 eyes	amod
4	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 possess	obj
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 birth	case
6	birth	birth	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 possess	obl
7	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 become	nsubj
8	become	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 possess	conj
9	blue	blue	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 become	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	Kittens	green eyes		birth			vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot eye=Theme
2	become	present						blue property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

All kittens possess blue eyes initially, and the definitive colour appears from approximately six to seven weeks

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	All	all	DET	PronType=Tot	2 kittens	det
2	kittens	kitten	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 possess	nsubj
3	possess	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	blue	blue	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 eyes	amod
5	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 possess	obj
6	initially	initially	ADV	_	3 possess	advmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 appears	punct
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 appears	cc
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 colour	det
10	definitive	definitive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 colour	amod
11	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 appears	nsubj
12	appears	appear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 possess	parataxis
13	from	from	ADP	_	18 weeks	case
14	approximately	approximately	ADV	_	15 six	advmod
15	six	six	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	18 weeks	nummod
16	to	to	ADP	_	17 seven	case
17	seven	seven	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	15 six	nmod
18	weeks	week	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 appears	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	all kittens	blue eyes				initially property	vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot eye=Theme
2	appear	present	the definitive colour				week		vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

The eye colour of a kitten never alters

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 colour	det
2	eye	eye	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 colour	compound
3	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 alters	nsubj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 kitten	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 kitten	det
6	kitten	kitten	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 colour	nmod
7	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	8 alters	advmod
8	alters	alter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not alter	present	the eye colour of a kitten						vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

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.

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