Exam question 2 · The capybara: the calmest animal, friend of crocodiles?

Identify the principal reason for which a capybara may be observed consuming its own soft droppings.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, observe, consume · To what, where: principal reason, capybara, own soft droppings

This is exam question 2 of lesson 42 «The capybara: the calmest animal, friend of crocodiles?» 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	11 observed	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 capybara	det
8	capybara	capybara	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 observed	nsubj:pass
9	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 observed	aux
10	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	11 observed	aux:pass
11	observed	observe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl:relcl
12	consuming	consume	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	11 observed	xcomp
13	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 droppings	nmod:poss
14	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 droppings	amod
15	soft	soft	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 droppings	amod
16	droppings	dropping	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 consuming	obj
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	observe	may · passive		a capybara	for the principal reason	tree rules
3	consume	gerund		capybara's own soft droppings		vn consume-66 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dropping=Asset

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 practice serves solely to clean the burrow

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 practice	det
2	practice	practice	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 serves	nsubj
3	serves	serve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	solely	solely	ADV	_	3 serves	advmod
5	to	to	PART	_	6 clean	mark
6	clean	clean	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 serves	advcl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 burrow	det
8	burrow	burrow	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 clean	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	serve	present	the practice					solely property	vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent
2	clean	to-infinitive	the practice not said here	the burrow					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent burrow=Patient

Option 2

The animal is thereby rendered unpalatable to the caiman, the jaguar and other predators of the region

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 animal	det
2	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 rendered	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 rendered	aux:pass
4	thereby	thereby	ADV	_	5 rendered	advmod
5	rendered	render	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	unpalatable	unpalatable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 rendered	xcomp
7	to	to	ADP	_	9 caiman	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 caiman	det
9	caiman	caiman	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 rendered	obl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 jaguar	punct
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 jaguar	det
12	jaguar	jaguar	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 caiman	conj
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 predators	cc
14	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 predators	amod
15	predators	predator	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 caiman	conj
16	of	of	ADP	_	18 region	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 region	det
18	region	region	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 predators	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	render	present · passive		the animal	the caiman and the jaguar and other predators of the region			thereby, unpalatable property	vn give-13.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: subject=Theme to caiman=Recipient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The food passes through the gut a second time, permitting the extraction of further nourishment

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 food	det
2	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 passes	nsubj
3	passes	pass	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	through	through	ADP	_	6 gut	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 gut	det
6	gut	gut	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 passes	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 time	det
8	second	second	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	9 time	amod
9	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 passes	obl:unmarked
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 permitting	punct
11	permitting	permit	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 passes	advcl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 extraction	det
13	extraction	extraction	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 permitting	obj
14	of	of	ADP	_	16 nourishment	case
15	further	further	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 nourishment	amod
16	nourishment	nourishment	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 extraction	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	roles by
1	pass	present	the food		the gut	time	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme through gut=Location
2	permit	gerund	the food not said here	the extraction of further nourishment			vn admit-64.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent extraction=Theme
3	extract			further nourishment			nom extraction «process transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

The animal is deprived of any other source of food

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 animal	det
2	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 deprived	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 deprived	aux:pass
4	deprived	deprive	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 source	case
6	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	8 source	det
7	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 source	amod
8	source	source	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 deprived	obl:agent
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 food	case
10	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 source	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	deprive	present · passive	any other source of food	the animal					vn deprive-10.6.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Source

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/42-the-capybara/e2/