Exam question 4 · How animals hunt

Ascertain the means by which certain dolphins confine a shoal of fish.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, the, certain dolphins · What happens: ascertain, mean, confine · To what, where: shoal

This is exam question 4 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 means	nsubj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Ascertain	ccomp
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 confine	obl
6	certain	certain	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 dolphins	amod
7	dolphins	dolphin	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 confine	nsubj
8	confine	confine	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 means	parataxis
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 shoal	det
10	shoal	shoal	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 confine	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	12 fish	case
12	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 shoal	nmod
13	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here		vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	mean	present	the		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
3	confine	present	certain dolphins	a shoal of fish	vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shoal=Theme

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

By encircling the shoal with a ring of bubbles

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 encircling	mark
2	encircling	encircle	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 shoal	det
4	shoal	shoal	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 encircling	obj
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 ring	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 ring	det
7	ring	ring	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 encircling	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 bubbles	case
9	bubbles	bubble	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 ring	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	encircle	gerund		the shoal				with a ring of bubbles	vn fill-9.8 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent shoal=Destination with ring=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

By singing to the fish until they sleep

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 singing	mark
2	singing	sing	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	to	to	ADP	_	5 fish	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 fish	det
5	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 singing	obl
6	until	until	SCONJ	_	8 sleep	mark
7	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 sleep	nsubj
8	sleep	sleep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 singing	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sing speech: express	gerund			the fish				vn manner_speaking-37.3 «NP V PP.recipient»: agent=Agent to fish=Recipient
2	sleep	present	they						vn snooze-40.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

By stirring mud from the seabed into a solid wall

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 stirring	mark
2	stirring	stir	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	mud	mud	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 stirring	obj
4	from	from	ADP	_	6 seabed	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 seabed	det
6	seabed	seabed	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 stirring	obl
7	into	into	ADP	_	10 wall	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 wall	det
9	solid	solid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 wall	amod
10	wall	wall	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 stirring	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	stir	gerund		mud		the seabed		into a solid wall	vn shake-22.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent mud=Patient into wall=Co-Patient

Option 4

By lowering the temperature of the water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 lowering	mark
2	lowering	lower	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 temperature	det
4	temperature	temperature	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 lowering	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 water	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 water	det
7	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 temperature	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lower	gerund		the temperature of the water					vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent temperature=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/52-how-animals-hunt/e4/