Exam question 4 · China's mountains: golden snub-nosed monkeys, takins, red-…

Ascertain the reason for which takins assemble at certain muddy sites.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, takins · What happens: ascertain, assemble · To what, where: reason, certain muddy sites

This is exam question 4 of lesson 378 «China's mountains: golden snub-nosed monkeys, takins, red-crowned cranes and giant salamanders» 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 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 assemble	obl
6	takins	takin	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 assemble	nsubj
7	assemble	assemble	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	acl:relcl
8	at	at	ADP	_	11 sites	case
9	certain	certain	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 sites	amod
10	muddy	muddy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 sites	amod
11	sites	site	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 assemble	obl
12	.	.	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 reason					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	assemble	present	takins			certain muddy sites		for the reason	vn herd-47.5.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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 · ✓ the right answer

The ground there is rich in salt and minerals deficient in their food

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 ground	det
2	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 rich	nsubj
3	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	5 rich	expl
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 rich	cop
5	rich	rich	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 salt	case
7	salt	salt	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 rich	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 minerals	cc
9	minerals	mineral	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 salt	conj
10	deficient	deficient	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 salt	amod
11	in	in	ADP	_	13 food	case
12	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 food	nmod:poss
13	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 deficient	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the ground			salt and minerals; there		rich property	tree rules

Option 2

The mud protects them from wolves

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 mud	det
2	mud	mud	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 protects	nsubj
3	protects	protect	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 protects	obj
5	from	from	ADP	_	6 wolves	case
6	wolves	wolf	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 protects	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	protect	present	the mud	them = they				from wolves	vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent they=Beneficiary from wolf=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

They assemble there to give birth

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 assemble	nsubj
2	assemble	assemble	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	2 assemble	advmod
4	to	to	PART	_	5 give	mark
5	give	give	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 assemble	advcl
6	birth	birth	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 give	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	assemble	present	They			there			vn herd-47.5.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	give	to-infinitive	They not said here	birth					vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent birth=Theme

Option 4

The sites are warmer than the surrounding forest during the winter months

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 sites	det
2	sites	site	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 warmer	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 warmer	cop
4	warmer	warm	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
5	than	than	ADP	_	8 forest	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 forest	det
7	surrounding	surround	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 forest	amod
8	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 warmer	obl
9	during	during	ADP	_	12 months	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 months	det
11	winter	winter	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 months	compound
12	months	month	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 warmer	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the sites				month	than the surrounding forest; warm property	tree rules
2	surround	gerund							vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=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.

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