Exam question 1 · Minibeasts in the house: house spiders, silverfish, woodli…

Identify the most probable manner in which a large spider came to be present in a bath.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, large spider · What happens: identify, come, be · To what, where: probable manner, bath

This is exam question 1 of lesson 370 «Minibeasts in the house: house spiders, silverfish, woodlice, moths and cockroaches» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 manner	det
3	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	4 probable	advmod
4	probable	probable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 manner	amod
5	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 which	case
7	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 came	obl
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 spider	det
9	large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 spider	amod
10	spider	spider	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 came	nsubj
11	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 manner	acl:relcl
12	to	to	PART	_	14 present	mark
13	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	14 present	cop
14	present	present	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 came	xcomp
15	in	in	ADP	_	17 bath	case
16	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 bath	det
17	bath	bath	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 present	obl
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the probable manner			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent manner=Theme
2	come	past	a large spider		the probable manner		vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in which=Location
3	is	to-infinitive	a large spider not said here		a bath	present 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

It ascended through the drain from the sewers beneath the dwelling

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 ascended	nsubj:pass
2	ascended	ascend	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
3	through	through	ADP	_	5 drain	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 drain	det
5	drain	drain	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 ascended	obl
6	from	from	ADP	_	8 sewers	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 sewers	det
8	sewers	sewer	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 ascended	obl
9	beneath	beneath	ADP	_	11 dwelling	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 dwelling	det
11	dwelling	dwelling	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 ascended	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascend	participle · passive		It		the drain		from the sewers; beneath the dwelling	vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: subject=Trajectory

Option 2

It descended from the tap

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 descended	nsubj
2	descended	descend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	from	from	ADP	_	5 tap	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 tap	det
5	tap	tap	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 descended	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	descend	past	It			the tap			vn meander-47.7-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from tap=Location

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

It was generated spontaneously within the bath

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 generated	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 generated	aux:pass
3	generated	generate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	spontaneously	spontaneously	ADV	_	3 generated	advmod
5	within	within	ADP	_	7 bath	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 bath	det
7	bath	bath	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 generated	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	generate	past · passive		It				within the bath; spontaneously property	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It fell in whilst hunting and is unable to climb the smooth sides

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 fell	nsubj
2	fell	fall	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 hunting	case
4	whilst	whilst	SCONJ	_	5 hunting	case
5	hunting	hunting	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 fell	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 unable	cc
7	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 unable	cop
8	unable	unable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 fell	conj
9	to	to	PART	_	10 climb	mark
10	climb	climb	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 unable	xcomp
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 sides	det
12	smooth	smooth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 sides	amod
13	sides	side	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 climb	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	fall	past	It		hunting		vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme in hunting=Location
2	is	present				unable property	tree rules
3	climb	to-infinitive		the smooth sides			vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial_Location side=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/370-minibeasts-in-the-house-house-spiders-silverfish-woodlice-moths-and-cockroaches/e1/