Exam question 4 · Old pets: grey muzzles, slow walks and saying goodbye

Ascertain the assistance appropriate to an aged dog afflicted by arthritis.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, afflict · To what, where: assistance, aged dog

This is exam question 4 of lesson 328 «Old pets: grey muzzles, slow walks and saying goodbye» 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 assistance	det
3	assistance	assistance	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	appropriate	appropriate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 assistance	amod
5	to	to	ADP	_	8 dog	case
6	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 dog	det
7	aged	aged	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 dog	amod
8	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 appropriate	obl
9	afflicted	afflict	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 dog	acl
10	by	by	ADP	_	11 arthritis	case
11	arthritis	arthritis	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 afflicted	obl
12	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the assistance					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent assistance=Topic
2	afflict	participle		a aged dog not said here				by arthritis	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=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

The removal of all bedding

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 removal	det
2	removal	removal	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 bedding	case
4	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	5 bedding	det
5	bedding	bedding	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 removal	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	remove			all bedding					nom removal «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

Prolonged and vigorous running on each day, together with jumping exercises to restore strength

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Prolonged	prolong	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 vigorous	cc
3	vigorous	vigorous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Prolonged	conj
4	running	run	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 vigorous	advcl
5	on	on	ADP	_	7 day	case
6	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	7 day	det
7	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 running	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 jumping	punct
9	together	together	ADV	_	11 jumping	advmod
10	with	with	SCONJ	_	11 jumping	mark
11	jumping	jump	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 Prolonged	conj
12	exercises	exercise	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 jumping	obj
13	to	to	PART	_	14 restore	mark
14	restore	restore	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 jumping	xcomp
15	strength	strength	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 restore	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	prolong	participle				vn sustain-55.6 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent
2	run	gerund		day		vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	jump	gerund	exercises		together property	tree rules
4	restore	to-infinitive	strength			vn contribute-13.2 «NP V NP.theme (PP)»: agent=Agent strength=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Shorter and gentler walks, soft bedding, ramps and medication prescribed by a veterinarian

The tree, 13 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Shorter	short	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	4 walks	amod
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 gentler	cc
3	gentler	gentle	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	1 Shorter	conj
4	walks	walk	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 bedding	punct
6	soft	soft	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 bedding	amod
7	bedding	bedding	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 walks	conj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 ramps	punct
9	ramps	ramp	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 bedding	conj
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 medication	cc
11	medication	medication	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 ramps	conj
12	prescribed	prescribe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 ramps	acl
13	by	by	ADP	_	15 veterinarian	case
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 veterinarian	det
15	veterinarian	veterinarian	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 prescribed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prescribe	participle		ramps and medication not said here				by a veterinarian	tree rules

Option 4

The provision of jumping exercises

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 provision	det
2	provision	provision	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 exercises	case
4	jumping	jump	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 exercises	amod
5	exercises	exercise	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 provision	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	jump	gerund							vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	provide		jumping exercises						nom provision «communication intransitive»: of=agent

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/328-old-pets-grey-muzzles-slow-walks-and-saying-goodbye/e4/