Exam question 3 · Bones by name: the skull, jaw, spine and ribs

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the number of ribs in men and in women.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts · What happens: select, establish, concern · To what, where: response, number

This is exam question 3 of lesson 357 «Bones by name: the skull, jaw, spine and ribs» 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 number	det
11	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 ribs	case
13	ribs	rib	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 number	nmod
14	in	in	ADP	_	15 men	case
15	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 ribs	nmod
16	and	and	CCONJ	_	18 women	cc
17	in	in	ADP	_	18 women	case
18	women	woman	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 men	conj
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 number of ribs in men and women		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus number=Experiencer

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

Women possess one pair fewer than men

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Women	woman	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 possess	nsubj
2	possess	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	4 pair	nummod
4	pair	pair	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 possess	obj
5	fewer	few	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	4 pair	amod
6	than	than	ADP	_	7 men	case
7	men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 fewer	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	Women	one pair					vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot pair=Theme

Option 2

Men possess one rib fewer than women

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 possess	nsubj
2	possess	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	4 rib	nummod
4	rib	rib	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 possess	obj
5	fewer	few	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	4 rib	amod
6	than	than	ADP	_	7 women	case
7	women	woman	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 fewer	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	Men	one rib					vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot rib=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Men and women alike possess twelve pairs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Men	man	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 possess	nsubj
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 women	cc
3	women	woman	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Men	conj
4	alike	alike	ADV	_	5 possess	advmod
5	possess	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	twelve	twelve	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 pairs	nummod
7	pairs	pair	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 possess	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	Men and women	twelve pairs				alike property	vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot pair=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

The number varies with the stature of the person

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 number	det
2	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 varies	nsubj
3	varies	vary	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	with	with	ADP	_	6 stature	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 stature	det
6	stature	stature	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 varies	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 person	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 person	det
9	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 stature	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	vary	present	the number					with the stature of the person	vn differ-23.4 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme with stature=Co-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/357-bones-by-name-the-skull-jaw-spine-and-ribs/e3/