Exam question 3 · A kitten at home: litter trays, scratching posts and play

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the difficulty of a cat in descending a tree?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: difficulty · What happens: follow, characteris, descend · To what, where: difficulty, tree

This is exam question 3 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	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 difficulty	det
10	difficulty	difficulty	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 cat	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 cat	det
13	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 difficulty	nmod
14	in	in	SCONJ	_	15 descending	mark
15	descending	descend	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 difficulty	acl
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 tree	det
17	tree	tree	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 descending	obj
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the difficulty of a cat	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	descend	gerund	the difficulty of a cat not said here	a tree		vn meander-47.7-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location tree=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

It is unable to see the ground from a height

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 unable	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 unable	cop
3	unable	unable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 see	mark
5	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 unable	xcomp
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 ground	det
7	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 see	obj
8	from	from	ADP	_	10 height	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 height	det
10	height	height	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 see	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					unable property	tree rules
2	see	to-infinitive		the ground		a height			vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer ground=Stimulus

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Its claws curve backwards and grip effectively only during ascent

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 claws	nmod:poss
2	claws	claw	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 curve	nsubj
3	curve	curve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	backwards	backwards	ADV	_	3 curve	advmod
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 grip	cc
6	grip	grip	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 curve	conj
7	effectively	effectively	ADV	_	6 grip	advmod
8	only	only	ADV	_	10 ascent	advmod
9	during	during	ADP	_	10 ascent	case
10	ascent	ascent	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 grip	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	curve	present	Its claws					backwards property	vn knead-26.5 «NP.material V PP.product»: agent=Material
2	grip	present	Its claws not said here				during ascent	effectively property	vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Its claws are retracted entirely during descent, so that it cannot grip the bark

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 claws	nmod:poss
2	claws	claw	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 retracted	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 retracted	aux:pass
4	retracted	retract	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	4 retracted	advmod
6	during	during	ADP	_	7 descent	case
7	descent	descent	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 retracted	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 grip	punct
9	so	so	SCONJ	ExtPos=SCONJ	14 grip	mark
10	that	that	SCONJ	_	9 so	fixed
11	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 grip	nsubj
12	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	14 grip	aux
13	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	14 grip	advmod
14	grip	grip	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 retracted	conj
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 bark	det
16	bark	bark	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 grip	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	retract	present · passive		Its claws			during descent	entirely property	vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
2	not grip	can	descent	the bark					vn touch-20-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bark=Experiencer

Option 4

It is afraid of the bark of the tree

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 afraid	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 afraid	cop
3	afraid	afraid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 bark	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 bark	det
6	bark	bark	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 afraid	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 tree	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 tree	det
9	tree	tree	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 bark	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					of the bark of the tree; afraid property	tree rules

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/327-a-kitten-at-home-litter-trays-scratching-posts-and-play/e3/