Exam question 4 · Hair: growing, curly and straight, eyebrows, eyelashes and…

Ascertain the principal cause of the greying of hair.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, principal cause · What happens: ascertain, grey · To what, where: principal cause

This is exam question 4 of lesson 355 «Hair: growing, curly and straight, eyebrows, eyelashes and going grey» 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	4 cause	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 cause	amod
4	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	of	of	SCONJ	_	7 greying	mark
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 greying	det
7	greying	grey	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 cause	acl
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 hair	case
9	hair	hair	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 greying	obl
10	.	.	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 principal cause					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cause=Topic
2	grey	gerund	the principal cause not said here					of hair	tree rules

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

The bleaching of the hair by sunlight over decades

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 bleaching	det
2	bleaching	bleaching	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 hair	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 hair	det
5	hair	hair	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 bleaching	nmod
6	by	by	ADP	_	7 sunlight	case
7	sunlight	sunlight	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 bleaching	nmod
8	over	over	ADP	_	9 decades	case
9	decades	decade	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 bleaching	nmod

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

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The cessation of the production of melanin by pigment cells in the roots

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cessation	det
2	cessation	cessation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 production	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 production	det
5	production	production	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 cessation	nmod
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 melanin	case
7	melanin	melanin	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 production	nmod
8	by	by	ADP	_	10 cells	case
9	pigment	pigment	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 cells	compound
10	cells	cell	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 cessation	nmod
11	in	in	ADP	_	13 roots	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 roots	det
13	roots	root	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 cessation	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cease		pigment cells	the production of melanin		the roots			nom cessation «event transitive»: of=patient by=agent in=place
2	produce			melanin					nom production «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

The accumulation of dust upon the hair

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 accumulation	det
2	accumulation	accumulation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 dust	case
4	dust	dust	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 accumulation	nmod
5	upon	upon	ADP	_	7 hair	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 hair	det
7	hair	hair	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 accumulation	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	accumulate			dust				upon the hair	nom accumulation «process transitive»: of=patient upon=obl

Option 4

The drying of the hair in consequence of age

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 drying	det
2	drying	drying	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 hair	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 hair	det
5	hair	hair	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 drying	nmod
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 consequence	case
7	consequence	consequence	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 hair	nmod
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 age	case
9	age	age	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 consequence	nmod

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

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/355-hair-growing-curly-and-straight-eyebrows-eyelashes-and-going-grey/e4/