Exam question 4 · City birds: sparrows, starlings, swifts, crows and peregri…

Ascertain the principal reason for which birds in cities frequently sing at a higher pitch or volume.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, birds · What happens: ascertain, sing · To what, where: principal reason, higher pitch

This is exam question 4 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	DET	PronType=Int	7 birds	det
7	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 sing	nsubj
8	in	in	ADP	_	9 cities	case
9	cities	city	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 birds	nmod
10	frequently	frequently	ADV	_	11 sing	advmod
11	sing	sing	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl:relcl
12	at	at	ADP	_	15 pitch	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 pitch	det
14	higher	high	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	15 pitch	amod
15	pitch	pitch	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 sing	obl
16	or	or	CCONJ	_	17 volume	cc
17	volume	volume	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 pitch	conj
18	.	.	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 reason					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	sing speech: express	present	which birds in cities			a higher pitch or volume		frequently property	vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at pitch=Location

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

Because city birds consume more sugar

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	4 consume	mark
2	city	city	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 birds	compound
3	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consume	nsubj
4	consume	consume	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	6 sugar	amod
6	sugar	sugar	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 consume	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	consume	present	city birds	more sugar					vn consume-66 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent sugar=Asset

Option 2

Because the air of cities is thinner

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	7 thinner	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 air	det
3	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 thinner	nsubj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 cities	case
5	cities	city	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 air	nmod
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 thinner	cop
7	thinner	thin	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the air of cities					thin property	tree rules

Option 3

Because city birds are deaf

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Because	because	SCONJ	_	5 deaf	mark
2	city	city	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 birds	compound
3	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 deaf	nsubj
4	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 deaf	cop
5	deaf	deaf	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	city birds					deaf property	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

To be heard above the noise of traffic

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	3 heard	mark
2	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	3 heard	aux:pass
3	heard	hear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	above	above	ADP	_	6 noise	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 noise	det
6	noise	noise	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 heard	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 traffic	case
8	traffic	traffic	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 noise	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hear	to-infinitive · passive				the noise of traffic			vn see-30.1-1-1 «NP V PP.stimulus»
2	noise		traffic						nom noise «event intransitive»: of=agent

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/e4/