Exam question 2 · City birds: sparrows, starlings, swifts, crows and peregri…

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the decline and recovery of the peregrine falcon?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: peregrine falcon · What happens: follow, characteris, decline · To what, where: decline

This is exam question 2 of lesson 369 «City birds: sparrows, starlings, swifts, crows and peregrines on tall buildings» 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	10 decline	det
10	decline	decline	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 recovery	cc
12	recovery	recovery	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 decline	conj
13	of	of	ADP	_	16 falcon	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 falcon	det
15	peregrine	peregrine	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 falcon	compound
16	falcon	falcon	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 decline	nmod
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the decline of the peregrine falcon and recovery	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	decline		the peregrine falcon			nom decline «process intransitive»: of=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 · ← Mova's choice

The species declined because pigeons attacked its nests

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 species	det
2	species	species	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 declined	nsubj
3	declined	decline	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	because	because	SCONJ	_	6 attacked	mark
5	pigeons	pigeon	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 attacked	nsubj
6	attacked	attack	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 declined	advcl
7	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 nests	nmod:poss
8	nests	nest	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 attacked	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	decline	past	the species						vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute
2	attack	past	pigeons	its nests					vn attack-60.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nest=Patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The pesticide DDT thinned its eggshells, and after its prohibition the species recovered

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 pesticide	det
2	pesticide	pesticide	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 thinned	nsubj
3	DDT	DDT	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 pesticide	appos
4	thinned	thin	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 eggshells	nmod:poss
6	eggshells	eggshell	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 thinned	obj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 recovered	punct
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 recovered	cc
9	after	after	ADP	_	11 prohibition	case
10	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 prohibition	nmod:poss
11	prohibition	prohibition	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 recovered	obl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 species	det
13	species	species	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 prohibition	nmod
14	recovered	recover	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 thinned	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	roles by
1	thin	past	the pesticide	pesticide's eggshells		vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent eggshell=Patient
2	recover	past	the pesticide not said here		after pesticide's prohibition the species	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	prohibit		pesticide			nom prohibition «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

The species has never declined

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 species	det
2	species	species	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 declined	nsubj:pass
3	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 declined	aux
4	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	5 declined	advmod
5	declined	decline	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not decline	present · perfect · passive		the species					vn reject-77.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 4

The species declined owing to the construction of tall buildings in the cities of Europe

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 species	det
2	species	species	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 declined	nsubj
3	declined	decline	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	owing	owe	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 declined	xcomp
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 construction	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 construction	det
7	construction	construction	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 owing	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 buildings	case
9	tall	tall	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 buildings	amod
10	buildings	building	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 construction	nmod
11	in	in	ADP	_	13 cities	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 cities	det
13	cities	city	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 owing	obl
14	of	of	ADP	_	15 Europe	case
15	Europe	Europe	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 cities	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	decline	past	the species				vn reject-77.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	not owe	gerund	the species not said here		the cities of Europe	to the construction of tall buildings goal	vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP PP.goal»: agent=Agent to construction=Goal
3	construct			tall buildings			nom construction «act transitive»: of=patient

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/369-city-birds-sparrows-starlings-swifts-crows-and-peregrines-on-tall-buildings/e2/