Exam question 2 · How animals hide: camouflage and mimicry

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the pelage of the polar bear?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: pelage

This is exam question 2 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 pelage	det
10	pelage	pelage	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	14 bear	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 bear	det
13	polar	polar	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 bear	amod
14	bear	bear	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 pelage	nmod
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the pelage of the polar bear				of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules

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 hairs are white and the underlying skin is white

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 hairs	det
2	hairs	hair	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 white	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 white	cop
4	white	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 white	cc
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 skin	det
7	underlying	underlying	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 skin	amod
8	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 white	nsubj
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 white	cop
10	white	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 white	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the hairs					white property	tree rules
2	is	present	the underlying skin					white property	tree rules

Option 2

The hairs are solid and the skin is pink

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 hairs	det
2	hairs	hair	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 solid	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 solid	cop
4	solid	solid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 pink	cc
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 skin	det
7	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 pink	nsubj
8	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 pink	cop
9	pink	pink	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 solid	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the hairs					solid property	tree rules
2	is	present	the skin					pink property	tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The hairs are clear and hollow, and the skin beneath is black

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 hairs	det
2	hairs	hair	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 clear	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 clear	cop
4	clear	clear	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 hollow	cc
6	hollow	hollow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 clear	conj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 black	punct
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 black	cc
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 beneath	det
10	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 beneath	compound
11	beneath	beneath	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 black	nsubj
12	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 black	cop
13	black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 clear	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	present	the hairs	clear property	tree rules
2	be		the hairs not said here		tree rules
3	is	present	the skin beneath	black property	tree rules

Option 4

The hairs are black and appear white by reflection of snow

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 hairs	det
2	hairs	hair	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 black	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 black	cop
4	black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 appear	cc
6	appear	appear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 black	conj
7	white	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 appear	xcomp
8	by	by	ADP	_	9 reflection	case
9	reflection	reflection	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 appear	obl
10	of	of	ADP	_	11 snow	case
11	snow	snow	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 reflection	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the hairs					black property	tree rules
2	appear	present	the hairs not said here					by reflection of snow; white property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by reflection=Location

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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