Exam question 3 · Birds of every kind: penguins, ostriches, parrots, humming…

Ascertain the cause of the pink colouration of the flamingo.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, cause · To what, where: cause, pink colouration

This is exam question 3 of lesson 35 «Birds of every kind: penguins, ostriches, parrots, hummingbirds, songbirds, crows» 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 cause	det
3	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 colouration	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 colouration	det
6	pink	pink	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 colouration	amod
7	colouration	colouration	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 cause	nmod
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 flamingo	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 flamingo	det
10	flamingo	flamingo	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 colouration	nmod
11	.	.	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 cause of the pink colouration of the flamingo					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cause=Topic
2	cause			the pink colouration of the flamingo					nom cause «event 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

A pigment present from hatching irrespective of diet

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 present	det
2	pigment	pigment	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 present	compound
3	present	present	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	from	from	SCONJ	_	5 hatching	mark
5	hatching	hatch	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 present	acl
6	irrespective	irrespective	ADV	_	5 hatching	advmod
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 diet	case
8	diet	diet	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 hatching	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hatch	gerund	a pigment present not said here					of diet; irrespective property	vn grow-26.2.1 «NP.patient V PP.product»: agent=Patient

Option 2

Exposure to strong sunlight

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Exposure	exposure	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	to	to	ADP	_	4 sunlight	case
3	strong	strong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 sunlight	amod
4	sunlight	sunlight	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Exposure	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

The colour of the warm pink water in which it stands to feed all day

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 colour	det
2	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	7 water	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 water	det
5	warm	warm	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 water	amod
6	pink	pink	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 water	amod
7	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 colour	nmod
8	in	in	ADP	_	9 which	case
9	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 stands	obl
10	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 stands	nsubj
11	stands	stand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 colour	acl:relcl
12	to	to	PART	_	13 feed	mark
13	feed	feed	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 stands	xcomp
14	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	15 day	det
15	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 feed	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	stand	present	water			the colour of the warm pink water			tree rules
2	feed	to-infinitive	water not said here				day		vn gorge-39.6 «NP V PP.patient»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Pigments obtained from its diet of algae and brine shrimp

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Pigments	pigment	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
2	obtained	obtain	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Pigments	acl
3	from	from	ADP	_	5 diet	case
4	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 diet	nmod:poss
5	diet	diet	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 obtained	obl
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 algae	case
7	algae	alga	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 diet	nmod
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 shrimp	cc
9	brine	brine	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 shrimp	compound
10	shrimp	shrimp	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 algae	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	obtain	participle		Pigments not said here		its diet of algae and brine shrimp			vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP V NP PP.source»: agent=Agent from diet=Source

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/35-birds-of-every-kind/e3/