Exam question 4 · Giants people saw: Steller's sea cow, Haast's eagle, giant…

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the vulnerability of island giants to the arrival of human beings?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: human beings · What happens: follow, characteris, arrive · To what, where: vulnerability

This is exam question 4 of lesson 386 «Giants people saw: Steller's sea cow, Haast's eagle, giant lemurs and elephant birds» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 vulnerability	det
10	vulnerability	vulnerability	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 giants	case
12	island	island	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 giants	compound
13	giants	giant	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 vulnerability	nmod
14	to	to	ADP	_	16 arrival	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 arrival	det
16	arrival	arrival	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obl
17	of	of	ADP	_	19 beings	case
18	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 beings	amod
19	beings	being	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 arrival	nmod
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the vulnerability of island giants	of the following statements; to the arrival of human beings; accurately property	tree rules
3	arrive		human beings			nom arrival «act intransitive»: of=agent

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

They reproduced so rapidly that hunting by people had no effect whatsoever upon their numbers

The tree, 15 words

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 reproduced	nsubj
2	reproduced	reproduce	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	so	so	ADV	_	4 rapidly	advmod
4	rapidly	rapidly	ADV	_	2 reproduced	advmod
5	that	that	SCONJ	_	9 had	mark
6	hunting	hunt	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	9 had	csubj
7	by	by	ADP	_	8 people	case
8	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 hunting	obl
9	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 reproduced	advcl
10	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	11 effect	det
11	effect	effect	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 had	obj
12	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	11 effect	advmod
13	upon	upon	ADP	_	15 numbers	case
14	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 numbers	nmod:poss
15	numbers	number	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 effect	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	reproduce	past	They		rapidly property	vn birth-28.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	hunt	gerund			by people	vn hunt-35.1 «NP V PP.theme PP.location»: agent=Agent by people=Location
3	have	past	hunting	no effect	upon people's numbers	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent effect=Patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Lacking fear of people, they were exposed to hunting, introduced predators and loss of forest

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Lacking	lack	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 exposed	advcl
2	fear	fear	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Lacking	obj
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 people	case
4	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 fear	nmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Lacking	punct
6	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 exposed	nsubj:pass
7	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 exposed	aux:pass
8	exposed	expose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
9	to	to	ADP	_	10 hunting	case
10	hunting	hunting	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 exposed	obl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 predators	punct
12	introduced	introduce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	13 predators	amod
13	predators	predator	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 hunting	conj
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 loss	cc
15	loss	loss	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 hunting	conj
16	of	of	ADP	_	17 forest	case
17	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 loss	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	to whom	roles by
1	lack	gerund	fear of people		tree rules
2	expose	past · passive	people	hunting and introduced predators and loss of forest	vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: subject=Theme to hunting=Recipient
3	introduce	participle			vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient
4	fear		people		nom fear «feeling transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

They were too fast to be caught

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	4 fast	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 fast	cop
3	too	too	ADV	_	4 fast	advmod
4	fast	fast	ADV	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	7 caught	mark
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 caught	aux:pass
7	caught	catch	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 fast	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	They					fast property	tree rules
2	catch	to-infinitive · passive	They not said here						vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»

Option 4

They had long experience of human hunters

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 had	nsubj
2	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 experience	amod
4	experience	experience	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 had	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 hunters	case
6	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 hunters	amod
7	hunters	hunter	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 experience	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	past	They	long experience of human hunters					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent experience=Patient
2	experience			human hunters					nom experience «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/386-giants-people-saw-steller-s-sea-cow-haast-s-eagle-giant-lemurs-and-elephant-birds/e4/