Exam question 3 · How animals sleep: half-asleep dolphins, standing horses,…

Identify the principal reason for which the duration of sleep attributed to sloths was formerly overstated.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, attribute, overstate · To what, where: principal reason, duration

This is exam question 3 of lesson 390 «How animals sleep: half-asleep dolphins, standing horses, short-sleeping giraffes and birds that nap in the air» 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 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	16 overstated	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 duration	det
8	duration	duration	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 overstated	nsubj:pass
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 sleep	case
10	sleep	sleep	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 duration	nmod
11	attributed	attribute	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 duration	acl
12	to	to	ADP	_	13 sloths	case
13	sloths	sloth	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 attributed	obl
14	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	16 overstated	aux:pass
15	formerly	formerly	ADV	_	16 overstated	advmod
16	overstated	overstate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl:relcl
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	attribute	participle		the duration of sleep not said here	to sloths	tree rules
3	overstate speech: other	past · passive		the duration of sleep	for the principal reason; formerly property	vn overstate-37.12 «NP V NP»: subject=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

Sloths were observed only in winter

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sloths	sloth	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 observed	nsubj:pass
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 observed	aux:pass
3	observed	observe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	only	only	ADV	_	6 winter	advmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 winter	case
6	winter	winter	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 observed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	observe	past · passive		Sloths			winter		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: subject=Topic

Option 2

Sloths conceal themselves while awake

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sloths	sloth	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 conceal	nsubj
2	conceal	conceal	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	themselves	themselves	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	2 conceal	obj
4	while	while	SCONJ	_	5 awake	mark
5	awake	awake	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 conceal	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	conceal	present	Sloths	Sloths = sloth					vn concealment-16 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent themselves=Patient

Option 3

Observers confused sloths with koalas

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Observers	observer	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 confused	nsubj
2	confused	confuse	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	sloths	sloth	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 confused	obj
4	with	with	ADP	_	5 koalas	case
5	koalas	koala	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 confused	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	confuse	past	Observers	sloths				with koalas	vn amalgamate-22.2-2 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent sloth=Patient with koala=Co-Patient

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Early observations were made upon animals kept in zoos

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Early	early	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 observations	amod
2	observations	observation	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 made	nsubj:pass
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 made	aux:pass
4	made	make	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	upon	upon	ADP	_	6 animals	case
6	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 made	obl:agent
7	kept	keep	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 animals	acl
8	in	in	ADP	_	9 zoos	case
9	zoos	zoo	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 kept	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	past · passive	animals	Early observations					vn build-26.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Product
2	keep	participle		animals not said here		zoos			vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent in zoo=Location

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/390-how-animals-sleep-half-asleep-dolphins-standing-horses-short-sleeping-giraffes-and-birds-that-nap-in-the-air/e3/