Exam question 1 · Octopuses, squid and cuttlefish

Identify the anatomical feature which permits an octopus to pass through apertures of very small dimension.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, anatomical feature · What happens: identify, permit, pass · To what, where: anatomical feature, octopus, apertures

This is exam question 1 of lesson 39 «Octopuses, squid and cuttlefish» 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 feature	det
3	anatomical	anatomical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 feature	amod
4	feature	feature	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 permits	nsubj
6	permits	permit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 feature	acl:relcl
7	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 octopus	det
8	octopus	octopus	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 permits	obj
9	to	to	PART	_	10 pass	mark
10	pass	pass	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 permits	advcl
11	through	through	ADP	_	12 apertures	case
12	apertures	aperture	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 pass	obl
13	of	of	ADP	_	16 dimension	case
14	very	very	ADV	_	15 small	advmod
15	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 dimension	amod
16	dimension	dimension	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 apertures	nmod
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the anatomical feature		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent feature=Theme
2	permit	present	the anatomical feature	a octopus		vn admit-64.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent octopus=Theme
3	pass	to-infinitive	the anatomical feature not said here		apertures of small dimension	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme through aperture=Location

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

The ability to dissolve its tissues and to reform them afterwards

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 ability	det
2	ability	ability	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 dissolve	mark
4	dissolve	dissolve	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 ability	acl
5	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 tissues	nmod:poss
6	tissues	tissue	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 dissolve	obj
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 reform	cc
8	to	to	PART	_	9 reform	mark
9	reform	reform	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 dissolve	conj
10	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 reform	obj
11	afterwards	afterwards	ADV	_	9 reform	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dissolve	to-infinitive		ability's tissues					vn break-45.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tissue=Patient
2	reform	to-infinitive		tissues = tissue				afterwards property	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent they=Patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The absence of any skeleton save a beak

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 absence	det
2	absence	absence	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 save	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 skeleton	case
4	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	5 skeleton	det
5	skeleton	skeleton	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 absence	nmod
6	save	save	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 beak	det
8	beak	beak	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 save	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	save	infinitive	the absence of any skeleton	a beak					vn get-13.5.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent beak=Theme
2	absent			any skeleton					nom absence «state transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

A shell which may be detached

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 shell	det
2	shell	shell	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 detached	nsubj:pass
4	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 detached	aux
5	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 detached	aux:pass
6	detached	detach	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 shell	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	detach	may · passive		a shell					vn disassemble-23.3 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 4

Collapsible bones within each arm

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Collapsible	collapsible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 bones	amod
2	bones	bone	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	within	within	ADP	_	5 arm	case
4	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	5 arm	det
5	arm	arm	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 bones	nmod

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

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/39-octopuses-squid-and-cuttlefish/e1/