Exam question 1 · How animals hide: camouflage and mimicry

Identify the principal purpose for which the chameleon is understood to alter its colouration.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, understand, alter · To what, where: principal purpose, chameleon, colouration

This is exam question 1 of lesson 51 «How animals hide: camouflage and mimicry» 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 purpose	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 purpose	amod
4	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 understood	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 chameleon	det
8	chameleon	chameleon	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 understood	nsubj:pass
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 understood	aux:pass
10	understood	understand	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 purpose	acl:relcl
11	to	to	PART	_	12 alter	mark
12	alter	alter	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 understood	advcl
13	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 colouration	nmod:poss
14	colouration	colouration	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 alter	obj
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal purpose		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent purpose=Theme
2	understand	present · passive		the chameleon	for the principal purpose	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Stimulus
3	alter	to-infinitive		chameleon's colouration		vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent colouration=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 · ✓ the right answer

Social signalling and the regulation of body temperature

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Social	social	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 signalling	amod
2	signalling	signalling	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 regulation	cc
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 regulation	det
5	regulation	regulation	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 signalling	conj
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 temperature	case
7	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 temperature	compound
8	temperature	temperature	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 regulation	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	regulate			body temperature					nom regulation «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

The exact reproduction of patterns upon which it rests, for concealment

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reproduction	det
2	exact	exact	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 reproduction	amod
3	reproduction	reproduction	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 patterns	case
5	patterns	pattern	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 reproduction	nmod
6	upon	upon	ADP	_	7 which	case
7	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 rests	obl
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 rests	nsubj
9	rests	rest	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 patterns	acl:relcl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 concealment	punct
11	for	for	ADP	_	12 concealment	case
12	concealment	concealment	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 reproduction	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	rest	present	it			patterns			vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon which=Location
2	reproduce		patterns						nom reproduction «process intransitive»: of=agent

Option 3

The attraction of insects towards its 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	towards	towards	ADP	_	7 tongue	case
6	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing 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				towards attraction's tongue	nom attraction «phenomenon transitive»: of=patient towards=obl

Option 4

The expulsion of surplus water from the skin

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 expulsion	det
2	expulsion	expulsion	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 water	case
4	surplus	surplus	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 water	amod
5	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 expulsion	nmod
6	from	from	ADP	_	8 skin	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 skin	det
8	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 expulsion	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	expel			surplus water		the skin			nom expulsion «act transitive»: of=patient from=place

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/51-how-animals-hide/e1/