Exam question 4 · Minibeasts in the house: house spiders, silverfish, woodli…

Ascertain the validity of the assertion that persons swallow eight spiders annually during sleep.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, persons · What happens: ascertain, swallow · To what, where: validity, assertion

This is exam question 4 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 validity	det
3	validity	validity	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 assertion	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 assertion	det
6	assertion	assertion	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 validity	nmod
7	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 swallow	obj
8	persons	person	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 swallow	nsubj
9	swallow	swallow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 assertion	acl:relcl
10	eight	eight	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	11 spiders	nummod
11	spiders	spider	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 swallow	obj
12	annually	annually	ADV	_	14 sleep	advmod
13	during	during	ADP	_	14 sleep	case
14	sleep	sleep	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 swallow	obl
15	.	.	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 validity of the assertion					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent validity=Topic
2	swallow	present	persons	the assertion			during sleep		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 · ← Mova's choice

It is true only during the winter months

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 true	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 true	cop
3	true	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	only	only	ADV	_	8 months	advmod
5	during	during	ADP	_	8 months	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 months	det
7	winter	winter	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 months	compound
8	months	month	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 true	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It				month	true property	tree rules

Option 2

It has been established by careful measurement

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	4 established	nsubj:pass
2	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 established	aux
3	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	4 established	aux:pass
4	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 measurement	case
6	careful	careful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 measurement	amod
7	measurement	measurement	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 established	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	establish	present · perfect · passive	careful measurement	It					vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient

Option 3

It is true only in respect of children

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 true	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 true	cop
3	true	true	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	only	only	ADV	_	6 respect	advmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 respect	case
6	respect	respect	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 true	conj
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 children	case
8	children	child	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 respect	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					true property	tree rules
2	respect			children					nom respect «cognition transitive»: of=patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It is without foundation in evidence

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	4 foundation	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 foundation	cop
3	without	without	ADP	_	4 foundation	case
4	foundation	foundation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 evidence	case
6	evidence	evidence	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 foundation	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It			evidence		without foundation	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/370-minibeasts-in-the-house-house-spiders-silverfish-woodlice-moths-and-cockroaches/e4/