Exam question 1 · How animals defend themselves

Identify the principal function of the vivid colouration exhibited by wild poison dart frogs.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, exhibit · To what, where: principal function, vivid colouration

This is exam question 1 of lesson 53 «How animals defend themselves» 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 function	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 function	amod
4	function	function	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 colouration	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 colouration	det
7	vivid	vivid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 colouration	amod
8	colouration	colouration	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 function	nmod
9	exhibited	exhibit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 colouration	acl
10	by	by	ADP	_	14 frogs	case
11	wild	wild	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 frogs	amod
12	poison	poison	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 dart	compound
13	dart	dart	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 frogs	compound
14	frogs	frog	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 exhibited	obl
15	.	.	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 function of the vivid colouration					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent function=Theme
2	exhibit	participle		the vivid colouration not said here				by wild dart frogs	vn reflexive_appearance-48.1.2 «NP V NP»: agent=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

It attracts insect prey within reach of the tongue

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 attracts	nsubj
2	attracts	attract	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	insect	insect	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 prey	compound
4	prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 attracts	obj
5	within	within	ADP	_	6 reach	case
6	reach	reach	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 attracts	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 tongue	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 tongue	det
9	tongue	tongue	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 reach	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	attract	present	It	insect prey				within reach of the tongue	vn lure-59.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent prey=Patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

It serves as a warning of toxicity to would-be predators

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 serves	nsubj
2	serves	serve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	as	as	ADP	_	5 warning	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 warning	det
5	warning	warning	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 serves	obl
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 toxicity	case
7	toxicity	toxicity	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 warning	nmod
8	to	to	ADP	_	9 would	case
9	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 predators	aux
10	-	-	PUNCT	_	9 would	punct
11	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	12 predators	cop
12	predators	predator	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 serves	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	serve	present	It		as a warning of toxicity	vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Agent as warning=Attribute
2	is a	would		predators		tree rules
3	warn			toxicity		nom warning «communication transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

It affords camouflage among the blossoms of the tropical forest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 affords	nsubj
2	affords	afford	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	camouflage	camouflage	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 affords	obj
4	among	among	ADP	_	6 blossoms	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 blossoms	det
6	blossoms	blossom	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 affords	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	10 forest	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 forest	det
9	tropical	tropical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 forest	amod
10	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 blossoms	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	afford	present	It	camouflage				among the blossoms of the tropical forest	tree rules

Option 4

It regulates the temperature of the skin

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 regulates	nsubj
2	regulates	regulate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 temperature	det
4	temperature	temperature	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 regulates	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 skin	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 skin	det
7	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 temperature	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	regulate	present	It	the temperature of the skin					tree rules

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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