Exam question 2 · Do animals dream? Twitching dogs, replaying rats and colou…

Identify the principal reason for which a sleeping domestic cat merely twitches during the stage of sleep associated with dreaming.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, sleeping domestic cat · What happens: identify, sleep, twitch, associate, dream · To what, where: principal reason, sleep

This is exam question 2 of lesson 391 «Do animals dream? Twitching dogs, replaying rats and colour-changing octopuses» 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	12 twitches	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 cat	det
8	sleeping	sleep	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	10 cat	amod
9	domestic	domestic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 cat	amod
10	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 twitches	nsubj
11	merely	merely	ADV	_	12 twitches	advmod
12	twitches	twitch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	parataxis
13	during	during	ADP	_	15 stage	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 stage	det
15	stage	stage	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 twitches	obl
16	of	of	ADP	_	17 sleep	case
17	sleep	sleep	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 stage	nmod
18	associated	associate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	17 sleep	acl
19	with	with	ADP	_	20 dreaming	case
20	dreaming	dream	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	18 associated	obl
21	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	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	sleep	gerund					vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	twitch	present	a sleeping domestic cat		during the stage of sleep	for the principal reason; merely property	vn body_internal_motion-49.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	associate	participle		sleep not said here			vn amalgamate-22.2-2 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient
5	dream	gerund					vn cognize-85 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=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

The cat is in fact fully awake throughout that stage

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cat	det
2	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 fact	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 fact	cop
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 fact	case
5	fact	fact	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	fully	fully	ADV	_	7 awake	advmod
7	awake	awake	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 fact	amod
8	throughout	throughout	ADP	_	10 stage	case
9	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	10 stage	det
10	stage	stage	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 awake	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the cat			fact			tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

A region of the brain inhibits the movement of the body during that stage

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 region	det
2	region	region	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 inhibits	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 brain	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 brain	det
5	brain	brain	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 region	nmod
6	inhibits	inhibit	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 movement	det
8	movement	movement	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 inhibits	obj
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 body	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 body	det
11	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 movement	nmod
12	during	during	ADP	_	14 stage	case
13	that	that	DET	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	14 stage	det
14	stage	stage	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 inhibits	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	inhibit	present	a region of the brain	the movement of the body			during that stage		vn discourage-64.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer movement=Eventuality
2	move			the body					nom movement «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

The muscles of the cat are wholly and permanently paralysed throughout all stages of sleep

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 muscles	det
2	muscles	muscle	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 paralysed	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 cat	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 cat	det
5	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 muscles	nmod
6	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 paralysed	aux:pass
7	wholly	wholly	ADV	_	10 paralysed	advmod
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 paralysed	cc
9	permanently	permanently	ADV	_	10 paralysed	advmod
10	paralysed	paralyse	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
11	throughout	throughout	ADP	_	13 stages	case
12	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	13 stages	det
13	stages	stage	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 paralysed	obl
14	of	of	ADP	_	15 sleep	case
15	sleep	sleep	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 stages	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	paralyse	present · passive		the muscles of the cat			throughout all stages of sleep	permanently, wholly property	tree rules

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

The cat possesses no dreaming stage of sleep whatsoever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cat	det
2	cat	cat	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 possesses	nsubj
3	possesses	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	6 stage	det
5	dreaming	dream	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 stage	amod
6	stage	stage	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 possesses	obj
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 sleep	case
8	sleep	sleep	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 stage	nmod
9	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	3 possesses	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	the cat	no dreaming stage of sleep				whatsoever property	vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot stage=Theme
2	dream	gerund							vn cognize-85 «NP V PP.topic»: agent=Agent

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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