Exam question 4 · Bones by name: the skull, jaw, spine and ribs

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the cervical vertebrae of the giraffe?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: cervical vertebrae

This is exam question 4 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	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 vertebrae	det
10	cervical	cervical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 vertebrae	amod
11	vertebrae	vertebra	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 giraffe	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 giraffe	det
14	giraffe	giraffe	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 vertebrae	nmod
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the cervical vertebrae of the giraffe				of the following statements; accurately property	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

They are absent, the neck being supported by muscle alone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 absent	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 absent	cop
3	absent	absent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 supported	punct
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 neck	det
6	neck	neck	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 supported	nsubj:pass
7	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 supported	aux:pass
8	supported	support	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 absent	advcl
9	by	by	ADP	_	10 muscle	case
10	muscle	muscle	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 supported	obl
11	alone	alone	ADV	_	8 supported	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	They					absent property	tree rules
2	support	gerund · passive	muscle	the neck				alone property	vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer subject=Stimulus

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

They number in excess of seventy

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 number	nsubj
2	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	4 excess	case
4	excess	excess	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 number	nmod
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 seventy	case
6	seventy	seventy	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 excess	nmod

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

Option 3

They are fused into a single bone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 fused	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 fused	aux:pass
3	fused	fuse	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	into	into	ADP	_	7 bone	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 bone	det
6	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 bone	amod
7	bone	bone	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 fused	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fuse	present · passive		They				into a single bone	vn mix-22.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: subject=Patient into bone=Co-Patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

They number seven, as in man, each being greatly elongated

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 number	nsubj
2	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	seven	seven	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	2 number	flat
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 man	punct
5	as	as	ADP	_	7 man	case
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 man	case
7	man	man	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 number	conj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 elongated	punct
9	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	12 elongated	nsubj:pass
10	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	12 elongated	aux:pass
11	greatly	greatly	ADV	_	12 elongated	advmod
12	elongated	elongate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 number	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	elongate	gerund · passive	number and man not said here	each				greatly property	tree rules

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/e4/