Exam question 2 · Giant reptiles of the past: Titanoboa, Sarcosuchus, Deinos…

Identify the principal evidence indicating that Deinosuchus preyed upon dinosaurs.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, principal evidence, Deinosuchus · What happens: identify, indicate, prey · To what, where: principal evidence

This is exam question 2 of lesson 383 «Giant reptiles of the past: Titanoboa, Sarcosuchus, Deinosuchus and giant tortoises» 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 evidence	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 evidence	amod
4	evidence	evidence	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	indicating	indicate	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 evidence	acl
6	that	that	SCONJ	_	8 preyed	mark
7	Deinosuchus	Deinosuchus	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 preyed	nsubj
8	preyed	prey	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 indicating	ccomp
9	upon	upon	ADP	_	10 dinosaurs	case
10	dinosaurs	dinosaur	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 preyed	obl
11	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal evidence		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent evidence=Theme
2	indicate	gerund	the principal evidence not said here			vn indicate-78-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Pivot clause=Topic
3	prey	past	Deinosuchus		upon dinosaurs	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

Contemporary written accounts

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Contemporary	contemporary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 accounts	amod
2	written	write	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 accounts	amod
3	accounts	account	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	write	participle							vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

Paintings upon the walls of caves

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Paintings	painting	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
2	upon	upon	ADP	_	4 walls	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 walls	det
4	walls	wall	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Paintings	nmod
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 caves	case
6	caves	cave	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 walls	nmod

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

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Tooth marks corresponding to its dentition upon fossil dinosaur bones

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Tooth	tooth	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 marks	compound
2	marks	mark	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	corresponding	correspond	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 marks	acl
4	to	to	ADP	_	6 dentition	case
5	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 dentition	nmod:poss
6	dentition	dentition	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 corresponding	obl
7	upon	upon	ADP	_	10 bones	case
8	fossil	fossil	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 dinosaur	compound
9	dinosaur	dinosaur	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 bones	compound
10	bones	bone	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 corresponding	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	correspond	gerund	Tooth marks not said here					to its dentition; upon dinosaur bones	vn correspond-36.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

Preserved stomach contents containing feathers and fragments of bone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Preserved	preserve	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 contents	amod
2	stomach	stomach	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 contents	compound
3	contents	contents	NOUN	Number=Ptan	root	root
4	containing	contain	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 feathers	amod
5	feathers	feather	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 contents	conj
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 fragments	cc
7	fragments	fragment	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 contents	conj
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 bone	case
9	bone	bone	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 fragments	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	preserve	participle							vn defend-72.3 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent
2	contain	gerund							vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot

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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