Exam question 2 · Unusual pets: stick insects, giant snails, ant farms and h…

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the removal of dead members from an ant colony.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts · What happens: select, establish, concern, remove · To what, where: response, removal, dead members

This is exam question 2 of lesson 330 «Unusual pets: stick insects, giant snails, ant farms and hermit crabs» 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	11 removal	det
11	removal	removal	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 members	case
13	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 members	amod
14	members	member	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 removal	nmod
15	from	from	ADP	_	18 colony	case
16	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 colony	det
17	ant	ant	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 colony	compound
18	colony	colony	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 members	nmod
19	.	.	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 removal of dead members from a ant colony		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus removal=Experiencer
4	remove			dead members from a ant colony		nom removal «act transitive»: of=patient

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

Ants make no provision for their dead

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ants	ant	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 make	nsubj
2	make	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 provision	det
4	provision	provision	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 make	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	7 dead	case
6	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 dead	nmod:poss
7	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 make	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present	Ants	no provision				for Ants's dead	vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP P.asset»: agent=Agent provision=Product for dead=Asset

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Dead ants emit a chemical signal that prompts others to remove them, thereby protecting the nest from disease

The tree, 18 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 ants	amod
2	ants	ant	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 emit	nsubj
3	emit	emit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 signal	det
5	chemical	chemical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 signal	amod
6	signal	signal	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 emit	obj
7	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 prompts	nsubj
8	prompts	prompt	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 signal	acl:relcl
9	others	other	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 prompts	obj
10	to	to	PART	_	11 remove	mark
11	remove	remove	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 prompts	xcomp
12	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 remove	obj
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 protecting	punct
14	thereby	thereby	ADV	_	15 protecting	advmod
15	protecting	protect	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 emit	advcl
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 nest	det
17	nest	nest	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 protecting	obj
18	from	from	ADP	_	19 disease	case
19	disease	disease	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 protecting	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	emit	present	Dead ants	a chemical signal		vn substance_emission-43.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Source signal=Theme
2	prompt	present	a chemical signal	others		tree rules
3	remove	to-infinitive	a chemical signal not said here	others = other		vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme
4	protect	gerund	Dead ants not said here	the nest	from disease; thereby property	vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent nest=Beneficiary from disease=Theme

Option 3

The dead are removed solely because they are visibly motionless, ants recognising death by sight alone

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 dead	det
2	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 removed	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 removed	aux:pass
4	removed	remove	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	solely	solely	ADV	_	4 removed	advmod
6	because	because	SCONJ	_	10 motionless	mark
7	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 motionless	nsubj
8	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 motionless	cop
9	visibly	visibly	ADV	_	10 motionless	advmod
10	motionless	motionless	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 removed	advcl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 ants	punct
12	ants	ant	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 motionless	obl
13	recognising	recognise	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	12 ants	acl
14	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 recognising	obj
15	by	by	ADP	_	16 sight	case
16	sight	sight	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 recognising	obl
17	alone	alone	ADV	_	13 recognising	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	remove	present · passive		the dead	solely property	vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
2	is	present	they		ants obl; motionless, visibly property	tree rules
3	recognise	gerund	ants not said here	death	by sight; alone property	vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer death=Stimulus

Option 4

The dead are removed solely to provide food for the queen

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 dead	det
2	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 removed	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 removed	aux:pass
4	removed	remove	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	solely	solely	ADV	_	7 provide	advmod
6	to	to	PART	_	7 provide	mark
7	provide	provide	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 removed	xcomp
8	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 provide	obj
9	for	for	ADP	_	11 queen	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 queen	det
11	queen	queen	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 provide	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	remove	present · passive		the dead					tree rules
2	provide	to-infinitive		food				for the queen; solely property	vn ensure-99 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Precondition food=Theme for queen=Beneficiary

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/330-unusual-pets-stick-insects-giant-snails-ant-farms-and-hermit-crabs/e2/