Exam question 1 · China's great rivers: the finless porpoise, the lost baiji…

Identify the principal method by which the baiji located its prey within the turbid waters of the Yangtze.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, baiji · What happens: identify, locate · To what, where: principal method, prey

This is exam question 1 of lesson 379 «China's great rivers: the finless porpoise, the lost baiji, Chinese alligators and sturgeon» 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	4 method	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 method	amod
4	method	method	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 located	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 baiji	det
8	baiji	baiji	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 located	nsubj
9	located	locate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 method	acl:relcl
10	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 prey	nmod:poss
11	prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 located	obj
12	within	within	ADP	_	15 waters	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 waters	det
14	turbid	turbid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 waters	amod
15	waters	water	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 located	obl
16	of	of	ADP	_	18 Yangtze	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 Yangtze	det
18	Yangtze	Yangtze	PROPN	Number=Sing	15 waters	nmod
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal method					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent method=Theme
2	locate	past	the baiji	baiji's prey				by the principal method; within the turbid waters of the Yangtze	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

By tracking the movement of birds

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 tracking	mark
2	tracking	track	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 movement	det
4	movement	movement	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 tracking	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 birds	case
6	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 movement	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	track	gerund		the movement of birds					vn stalk-35.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent movement=Theme
2	move			birds					nom movement «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

By the emission of clicks and the interpretation of returning echoes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	3 emission	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 emission	det
3	emission	emission	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 clicks	case
5	clicks	click	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 emission	nmod
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 interpretation	cc
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 interpretation	det
8	interpretation	interpretation	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 clicks	conj
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 echoes	case
10	returning	return	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	11 echoes	amod
11	echoes	echo	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 interpretation	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	roles by
1	return	gerund		vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	emit		clicks and the interpretation of returning echoes	nom emission «act transitive»: of=patient
3	interpret		returning echoes	nom interpretation «cognition transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

By acute vision

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	3 vision	case
2	acute	acute	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 vision	amod
3	vision	vision	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

By the sense of smell alone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	3 sense	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 sense	det
3	sense	sense	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 smell	case
5	smell	smell	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 sense	nmod
6	alone	alone	ADV	_	5 smell	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sense			smell					nom sense «cognition 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/379-china-s-great-rivers-the-finless-porpoise-the-lost-baiji-chinese-alligators-and-sturgeon/e1/