Exam question 4 · More record-breakers and oddballs: sloth, narwhal, chamele…

Ascertain the principal purpose for which chameleons alter their colouring.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, chameleons · What happens: ascertain, alter · To what, where: principal purpose, colouring

This is exam question 4 of lesson 45 «More record-breakers and oddballs: sloth, narwhal, chameleon, electric eel, giraffe» 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 purpose	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 purpose	amod
4	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 alter	obl
7	chameleons	chameleon	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 alter	nsubj
8	alter	alter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 purpose	acl:relcl
9	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 colouring	nmod:poss
10	colouring	colouring	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 alter	obj
11	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the principal purpose					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent purpose=Topic
2	alter	present	chameleons	chameleons's colouring				for the principal purpose	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent colouring=Patient

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 exact imitation of any background upon which they rest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 imitation	det
2	exact	exact	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 imitation	amod
3	imitation	imitation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 background	case
5	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	6 background	det
6	background	background	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 imitation	nmod
7	upon	upon	ADP	_	8 which	case
8	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 rest	obl
9	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 rest	nsubj
10	rest	rest	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 background	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	rest	present	they			any background			vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon which=Location
2	imitate			any background					nom imitation «cognition transitive»: of=patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Signalling to other chameleons and regulating body temperature

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Signalling	signall	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	to	to	ADP	_	4 chameleons	case
3	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 chameleons	amod
4	chameleons	chameleon	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Signalling	obl
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 regulating	cc
6	regulating	regulate	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 Signalling	conj
7	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 temperature	compound
8	temperature	temperature	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 regulating	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	signall	gerund						to other chameleons	tree rules
2	regulate	gerund		body temperature					tree rules

Option 3

The repair of damaged skin

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 repair	det
2	repair	repair	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 skin	case
4	damaged	damage	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 skin	amod
5	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 repair	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	damage	participle							vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	repair			damaged skin					nom repair «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

The attraction of insects to their tongue

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 attraction	det
2	attraction	attraction	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 insects	case
4	insects	insect	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 attraction	nmod
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 tongue	case
6	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 tongue	nmod:poss
7	tongue	tongue	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 attraction	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	attract			insects				to insects's tongue	nom attraction «phenomenon transitive»: of=patient to=obl

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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