Exam question 1 · Tortoises, lizards and geckos as pets: heat, light and was…

Identify the reason for which a reptile kept in captivity requires a source of external heat.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, reptile · What happens: identify, keep, require · To what, where: reason, reptile, captivity, source

This is exam question 1 of lesson 329 «Tortoises, lizards and geckos as pets: heat, light and washing hands» 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	3 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 requires	obl
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 reptile	det
7	reptile	reptile	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 requires	nsubj
8	kept	keep	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 reptile	acl
9	in	in	ADP	_	10 captivity	case
10	captivity	captivity	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 kept	obl
11	requires	require	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	acl
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 source	det
13	source	source	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 requires	obj
14	of	of	ADP	_	16 heat	case
15	external	external	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 heat	amod
16	heat	heat	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 source	nmod
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the reason			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	keep	participle		a reptile not said here	captivity		vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent in captivity=Location
3	require	present	a reptile	a source of external heat		for the reason	vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme source=Precondition

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

Reptiles are prone to catching colds

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Reptiles	reptile	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 prone	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 prone	cop
3	prone	prone	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	to	to	SCONJ	_	5 catching	mark
5	catching	catch	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 prone	acl
6	colds	cold	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 catching	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	Reptiles	prone					tree rules
2	catch	gerund		colds					vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cold=Theme

Option 2

The heat serves to harden the shell

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 heat	det
2	heat	heat	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 serves	nsubj
3	serves	serve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 harden	mark
5	harden	harden	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 serves	xcomp
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 shell	det
7	shell	shell	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 harden	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	serve	present	the heat						tree rules
2	harden	to-infinitive	the heat not said here	the shell					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent shell=Patient

Option 3

The heat prevents the shedding of skin

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 heat	det
2	heat	heat	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 prevents	nsubj
3	prevents	prevent	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 shedding	det
5	shedding	shedding	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 prevents	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 skin	case
7	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 shedding	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prevent	present	the heat	the shedding of skin					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer shedding=Theme
2	shed		skin						nom shedding «process intransitive»: of=agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Reptiles are incapable of generating their own body heat

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Reptiles	reptile	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 incapable	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 incapable	cop
3	incapable	incapable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	of	of	SCONJ	_	5 generating	mark
5	generating	generate	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 incapable	advcl
6	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 heat	nmod:poss
7	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 heat	amod
8	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 heat	compound
9	heat	heat	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 generating	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	present	Reptiles		incapable property	tree rules
2	generate	gerund	Reptiles not said here	Reptiles's own body heat		vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent heat=Patient
3	heat		Reptiles = reptile			nom heat «phenomenon intransitive»: poss=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/329-tortoises-lizards-and-geckos-as-pets-heat-light-and-washing-hands/e1/