Exam question 2 · The savanna: grass, trees and the great herds

Identify the principal reason for the annual migration of wildebeest across the Serengeti and the Masai Mara.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, wildebeest · What happens: identify, migrate · To what, where: principal reason, Serengeti

This is exam question 2 of lesson 4 «The savanna: grass, trees and the great herds» 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	_	8 migration	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 migration	det
7	annual	annual	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 migration	amod
8	migration	migration	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 reason	nmod
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 wildebeest	case
10	wildebeest	wildebeest	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 migration	nmod
11	across	across	ADP	_	13 Serengeti	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 Serengeti	det
13	Serengeti	Serengeti	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 migration	nmod
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 Mara	cc
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 Mara	det
16	Masai	Masai	PROPN	Number=Sing	17 Mara	compound
17	Mara	Mara	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 Serengeti	conj
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason				for the annual migration of wildebeest across the Serengeti and the Masai Mara	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	migrate		wildebeest			the Serengeti and the Masai Mara			nom migration «act intransitive»: of=agent across=place

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 herds seek salt from the sea, which they lack upon the plains of the interior

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 herds	det
2	herds	herd	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 seek	nsubj
3	seek	seek	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	salt	salt	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 seek	obj
5	from	from	ADP	_	7 sea	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 sea	det
7	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 seek	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 lack	punct
9	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 lack	obj
10	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 lack	nsubj
11	lack	lack	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 seek	conj
12	upon	upon	ADP	_	14 plains	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 plains	det
14	plains	plain	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 lack	obl
15	of	of	ADP	_	17 interior	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 interior	det
17	interior	interior	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 plains	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	seek	present	the herds	salt		the sea			vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent salt=Theme
2	lack	present	herds = herd					upon the plains of the interior	tree rules

Option 2

The herds flee permanently from the crocodiles of the rivers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 herds	det
2	herds	herd	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 flee	nsubj
3	flee	flee	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	permanently	permanently	ADV	_	3 flee	advmod
5	from	from	ADP	_	7 crocodiles	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 crocodiles	det
7	crocodiles	crocodile	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 flee	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 rivers	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 rivers	det
10	rivers	river	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 crocodiles	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	flee	present	the herds					from the crocodiles of the rivers; permanently property	vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme from crocodile=Initial_Location

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The herds pursue the rainfall and the fresh grass which it engenders

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 herds	det
2	herds	herd	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 pursue	nsubj
3	pursue	pursue	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 rainfall	det
5	rainfall	rainfall	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 pursue	obj
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 grass	cc
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 grass	det
8	fresh	fresh	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 grass	amod
9	grass	grass	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 rainfall	conj
10	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 engenders	nsubj
11	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 engenders	nsubj
12	engenders	engender	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 grass	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pursue	present	the herds	the rainfall and the fresh grass					vn chase-51.6 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent rainfall=Theme
2	engender	present	the fresh grass						vn engender-27.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition

Option 4

The herds are driven by herdsmen to market

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 herds	det
2	herds	herd	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 driven	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 driven	aux:pass
4	driven	drive	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 herdsmen	case
6	herdsmen	herdsman	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 driven	obl:agent
7	to	to	PART	_	8 market	mark
8	market	market	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 driven	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drive	present · passive	herdsmen	the herds					vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme subject=Trajectory

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/4-the-savanna/e2/