Exam question 3 · The savanna: grass, trees and the great herds

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the cervical vertebrae of the giraffe.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts · What happens: select, establish, concern · To what, where: response, cervical vertebrae

This is exam question 3 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	xcomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 facts	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 facts	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 facts	amod
8	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 facts	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 vertebrae	det
11	cervical	cervical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 vertebrae	amod
12	vertebrae	vertebra	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 concerning	obj
13	of	of	ADP	_	15 giraffe	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 giraffe	det
15	giraffe	giraffe	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 vertebrae	nmod
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response	consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the cervical vertebrae of the giraffe		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus vertebra=Experiencer

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 giraffe possesses fourteen cervical vertebrae

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 giraffe	det
2	giraffe	giraffe	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 possesses	nsubj
3	possesses	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	fourteen	fourteen	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 vertebrae	nummod
5	cervical	cervical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 vertebrae	amod
6	vertebrae	vertebra	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 possesses	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	the giraffe	fourteen cervical vertebrae					vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot vertebra=Theme

Option 2

The giraffe possesses approximately fifty cervical vertebrae, owing to the length of its neck

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 giraffe	det
2	giraffe	giraffe	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 possesses	nsubj
3	possesses	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	approximately	approximately	ADV	_	5 fifty	advmod
5	fifty	fifty	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 vertebrae	nummod
6	cervical	cervical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 vertebrae	amod
7	vertebrae	vertebra	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 possesses	obj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 owing	punct
9	owing	owe	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 possesses	advcl
10	to	to	ADP	_	12 length	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 length	det
12	length	length	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 owing	obl
13	of	of	ADP	_	15 neck	case
14	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 neck	nmod:poss
15	neck	neck	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 length	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	the giraffe	fifty cervical vertebrae					vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot vertebra=Theme
2	owe	gerund	the giraffe not said here					to the length of giraffe's neck goal	vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP PP.goal»: agent=Agent to length=Goal

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The giraffe possesses seven cervical vertebrae, being the same number as a human

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 giraffe	det
2	giraffe	giraffe	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 possesses	nsubj
3	possesses	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	seven	seven	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 vertebrae	nummod
5	cervical	cervical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 vertebrae	amod
6	vertebrae	vertebra	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 possesses	obj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 number	punct
8	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	11 number	cop
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 number	det
10	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 number	amod
11	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 vertebrae	appos
12	as	as	ADP	_	14 human	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 human	det
14	human	human	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 number	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	the giraffe	seven cervical vertebrae					vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot vertebra=Theme
2	is a	gerund		the same number				as a human	tree rules

Option 4

The giraffe possesses a single elongated cervical vertebra

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 giraffe	det
2	giraffe	giraffe	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 possesses	nsubj
3	possesses	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 vertebra	det
5	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 vertebra	amod
6	elongated	elongate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 vertebra	amod
7	cervical	cervical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 vertebra	amod
8	vertebra	vertebra	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 possesses	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	the giraffe	a single elongated cervical vertebra					vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot vertebra=Theme
2	elongate	participle							tree rules

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/e3/