Exam question 3 · Unusual pets: stick insects, giant snails, ant farms and h…

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the vacancy chain observed among hermit crabs?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · What happens: follow, characteris, observe · To what, where: vacancy chain

This is exam question 3 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	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	11 chain	det
10	vacancy	vacancy	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 chain	compound
11	chain	chain	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
12	observed	observe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 chain	acl
13	among	among	ADP	_	15 crabs	case
14	hermit	hermit	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 crabs	compound
15	crabs	crab	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 observed	obl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present	the vacancy chain	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	observe	participle	the vacancy chain not said here	among hermit crabs	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent

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

Crabs engage in combat until a single individual remains

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Crabs	crab	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 engage	nsubj
2	engage	engage	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	4 combat	case
4	combat	combat	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 engage	obl
5	until	until	ADP	_	9 remains	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 remains	det
7	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 remains	amod
8	individual	individual	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 remains	amod
9	remains	remains	NOUN	Number=Ptan	2 engage	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	engage	present	Crabs				until a single individual remains	in combat goal	vn involve-107.1 «NP V NP PP.goal»: agent=Agent in combat=Goal

Option 2

Crabs exchange shells at random without regard to size

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Crabs	crab	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 exchange	nsubj
2	exchange	exchange	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	shells	shell	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 exchange	obj
4	at	at	ADP	_	5 random	case
5	random	random	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 exchange	obl
6	without	without	ADP	_	7 regard	case
7	regard	regard	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 exchange	obl
8	to	to	PART	_	9 size	mark
9	size	size	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 regard	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	exchange	present	Crabs	shells		random		without regard	vn exchange-13.6.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shell=Theme

Option 3

Crabs construct new shells from sand

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Crabs	crab	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 construct	nsubj
2	construct	construct	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	new	new	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 shells	amod
4	shells	shell	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 construct	obj
5	from	from	ADP	_	6 sand	case
6	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 construct	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	construct	present	Crabs	new shells		sand			vn create-26.4 «NP V NP PP.material»: agent=Agent shell=Result from sand=Material

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Crabs assemble by size and each occupies the shell vacated by the next larger crab

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Crabs	crab	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 assemble	nsubj
2	assemble	assemble	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	by	by	ADP	_	4 size	case
4	size	size	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 assemble	obl
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 shell	cc
6	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	9 shell	det
7	occupies	occupy	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 shell	cop
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 shell	det
9	shell	shell	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 size	conj
10	vacated	vacate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 shell	acl
11	by	by	ADP	_	15 crab	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 crab	det
13	next	next	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 crab	amod
14	larger	large	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	15 crab	amod
15	crab	crab	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 vacated	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	assemble	present	Crabs		by size and each shell	vn herd-47.5.2 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent
2	is a	present	Crabs not said here	each shell		tree rules
3	vacate	participle		each shell not said here	by the next larger crab	vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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/e3/