Exam question 1 · How animals hunt

Identify the principal factor limiting the duration of the cheetah's maximal sprint.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, principal factor, cheetah · What happens: identify, limit, sprint · To what, where: principal factor, duration

This is exam question 1 of lesson 52 «How animals hunt» 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 factor	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 factor	amod
4	factor	factor	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	limiting	limit	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 factor	acl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 duration	det
7	duration	duration	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 limiting	obj
8	of	of	ADP	_	13 sprint	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 cheetah	det
10	cheetah	cheetah	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 sprint	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 cheetah	case
12	maximal	maximal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 sprint	amod
13	sprint	sprint	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 duration	nmod
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal factor	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent factor=Theme
2	limit	gerund	the principal factor not said here	the duration of the cheetah's maximal sprint	vn limit-76 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer duration=Patient
3	sprint		the cheetah		nom sprint «act intransitive»: poss=agent

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 interference of the tail with the gait

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 interference	det
2	interference	interference	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 tail	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 tail	det
5	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 interference	nmod
6	with	with	ADP	_	8 gait	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 gait	det
8	gait	gait	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 interference	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	interfere		the tail					with the gait	nom interference «communication intransitive»: of=agent with=obl

Option 2

The legal protection afforded to its prey

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 protection	det
2	legal	legal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 protection	amod
3	protection	protection	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	afforded	afford	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 protection	acl
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 prey	case
6	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 prey	nmod:poss
7	prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 afforded	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	afford	participle		the legal protection not said here				to protection's prey	tree rules

Option 3

Insufficient grip of the claws upon dry ground

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Insufficient	insufficient	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 grip	amod
2	grip	grip	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 claws	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 claws	det
5	claws	claw	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 grip	nmod
6	upon	upon	ADP	_	8 ground	case
7	dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 ground	amod
8	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 claws	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grip			the claws upon dry ground					nom grip «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Rapid overheating and exhaustion of the animal

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Rapid	rapid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 overheating	amod
2	overheating	overheat	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 exhaustion	cc
4	exhaustion	exhaustion	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 overheating	conj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 animal	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 animal	det
7	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 exhaustion	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	overheat	gerund							vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
2	exhaust			the animal					nom exhaustion «state transitive»: of=patient

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/52-how-animals-hunt/e1/