Exam question 2 · How animals talk

Identify the principal reason for which vervet monkeys employ distinct alarm calls for different predators.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, vervet monkeys · What happens: identify, employ · To what, where: principal reason, distinct alarm calls

This is exam question 2 of lesson 50 «How animals talk» 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	9 employ	obl
7	vervet	vervet	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 monkeys	compound
8	monkeys	monkey	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 employ	nsubj
9	employ	employ	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl:relcl
10	distinct	distinct	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 calls	amod
11	alarm	alarm	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 calls	compound
12	calls	call	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 employ	obj
13	for	for	ADP	_	15 predators	case
14	different	different	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 predators	amod
15	predators	predator	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 employ	obl
16	.	.	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					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	employ	present	vervet monkeys	distinct alarm calls				for the principal reason; for different predators	vn use-105.1 «NP V NP PP.predicate»: agent=Agent call=Theme for which=Eventuality

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

Each call is directed at a different group of monkeys

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	2 call	det
2	call	call	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 directed	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 directed	aux:pass
4	directed	direct	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	at	at	ADP	_	8 group	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 group	det
7	different	different	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 group	amod
8	group	group	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 directed	obl
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 monkeys	case
10	monkeys	monkey	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 group	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	direct	present · passive		each call		a different group of monkeys			vn supervision-95.2.2-1 «NP V NP.theme PP.predicate»: subject=Theme at group=Eventuality

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Each predator attacks in a different manner, requiring a distinct escape

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	2 predator	det
2	predator	predator	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 attacks	nsubj
3	attacks	attack	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	7 manner	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 manner	det
6	different	different	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 manner	amod
7	manner	manner	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 attacks	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 requiring	punct
9	requiring	require	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 attacks	advcl
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 escape	det
11	distinct	distinct	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 escape	amod
12	escape	escape	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 requiring	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	attack	present	each predator			a different manner			vn attack-60.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	require	gerund	each predator not said here	a distinct escape					vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme escape=Precondition

Option 3

The calls serve to identify the individual making them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 calls	det
2	calls	call	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 serve	nsubj
3	serve	serve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 identify	mark
5	identify	identify	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 serve	advcl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 individual	det
7	individual	individual	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 identify	obj
8	making	make	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 individual	acl
9	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 making	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	serve	present	the calls		vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent
2	identify	to-infinitive	the calls not said here	the individual	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent individual=Theme
3	make	gerund	the individual not said here	calls = call	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset they=Product

Option 4

The predators are thereby informed that they have been observed and should withdraw

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 predators	det
2	predators	predator	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 informed	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 informed	aux:pass
4	thereby	thereby	ADV	_	5 informed	advmod
5	informed	inform	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	that	that	SCONJ	_	10 observed	mark
7	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 observed	nsubj:pass
8	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 observed	aux
9	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	10 observed	aux:pass
10	observed	observe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 informed	ccomp
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 withdraw	cc
12	should	should	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 withdraw	aux
13	withdraw	withdraw	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 observed	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	inform speech: other	present · passive	the predators	thereby property	vn tell-37.2 «NP V NP.recipient S»: subject=Recipient clause=Topic
2	observe	present · perfect · passive	predators = predator		vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: subject=Topic
3	withdraw	should			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=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/50-how-animals-talk/e2/