Exam question 1 · The real animals of the Wild Wood: the badger, the stoat,…

Identify the principal feature by which the stoat may be distinguished from the weasel.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, principal feature · What happens: identify, distinguish · To what, where: principal feature, stoat

This is exam question 1 of lesson 405 «The real animals of the Wild Wood: the badger, the stoat, the weasel, the ferret, field-mice and hedgehogs in winter» 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	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 feature	amod
4	feature	feature	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 distinguished	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 stoat	det
8	stoat	stoat	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 distinguished	nsubj:pass
9	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 distinguished	aux
10	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	11 distinguished	aux:pass
11	distinguished	distinguish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 feature	acl:relcl
12	from	from	ADP	_	14 weasel	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 weasel	det
14	weasel	weasel	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 distinguished	obl
15	.	.	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 feature					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent feature=Theme
2	distinguish	may · passive	the principal feature	the stoat				from the weasel	vn distinguish-23.5-1 «NP V NP.theme PP.co-theme»: agent=Agent subject=Theme from weasel=Co-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 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

The stoat is the larger and bears a black tip to its tail

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 stoat	det
2	stoat	stoat	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 bears	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 bears	cop
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 bears	det
5	larger	large	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	7 bears	amod
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 larger	cc
7	bears	bear	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 tip	det
9	black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 tip	amod
10	tip	tip	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 bears	appos
11	to	to	ADP	_	13 tail	case
12	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 tail	nmod:poss
13	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 tip	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the stoat	the larger bears					tree rules

Option 2

The weasel alone possesses whiskers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 weasel	det
2	weasel	weasel	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 possesses	nsubj
3	alone	alone	ADV	_	2 weasel	advmod
4	possesses	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	whiskers	whisker	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 possesses	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	the weasel	whiskers					vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot whisker=Theme

Option 3

The stoat bears spots upon its flanks

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 spots	det
2	stoat	stoat	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 bears	compound
3	bears	bear	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 spots	compound
4	spots	spot	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
5	upon	upon	ADP	_	7 flanks	case
6	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 flanks	nmod:poss
7	flanks	flank	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 spots	nmod

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

Option 4

The weasel is the larger and possesses a striped back and a bushy tail

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 weasel	det
2	weasel	weasel	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 larger	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 larger	cop
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 larger	det
5	larger	large	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 possesses	cc
7	possesses	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 larger	conj
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 back	det
9	striped	striped	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 back	amod
10	back	back	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 possesses	obj
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 tail	cc
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 tail	det
13	bushy	bushy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 tail	amod
14	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 larger	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the weasel					large property	tree rules
2	possess	present	the weasel not said here	a striped back					vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot back=Theme

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/405-the-real-animals-of-the-wild-wood-badger-stoat-weasel-ferret-field-mice-and-winter-hedgehogs/e1/