Exam question 1 · The Arctic: ice, snow and the polar bear's world

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the skin and fur of the polar bear?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: skin

This is exam question 1 of lesson 6 «The Arctic: ice, snow and the polar bear's world» 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 skin	det
10	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 fur	cc
12	fur	fur	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 skin	conj
13	of	of	ADP	_	16 bear	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 bear	det
15	polar	polar	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 bear	amod
16	bear	bear	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 fur	nmod
17	?	?	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 skin and fur 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

The skin of the polar bear is pink and its hairs are white

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 skin	det
2	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 pink	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 bear	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 bear	det
5	polar	polar	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 bear	amod
6	bear	bear	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 skin	nmod
7	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 pink	cop
8	pink	pink	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 white	cc
10	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 hairs	nmod:poss
11	hairs	hair	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 white	nsubj
12	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 white	cop
13	white	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 pink	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the skin of the polar bear					pink property	tree rules
2	is	present	skin's hairs					white property	tree rules

Option 2

The skin and the hairs of the polar bear are alike white, the animal being white throughout

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 skin	det
2	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 white	nsubj
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 hairs	cc
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 hairs	det
5	hairs	hair	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 skin	conj
6	of	of	ADP	_	9 bear	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 bear	det
8	polar	polar	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 bear	amod
9	bear	bear	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 hairs	nmod
10	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 white	cop
11	alike	alike	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 white	amod
12	white	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 white	punct
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 animal	det
15	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 white	nsubj
16	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	17 white	cop
17	white	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 white	conj
18	throughout	throughout	PUNCT	_	12 white	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the skin and the hairs of the polar bear					white property	tree rules
2	is	gerund	the animal					white property	tree rules

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

The skin of the polar bear is black, whereas its hairs are translucent and merely appear white by the scattering of light

The tree, 22 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 skin	det
2	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 black	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 bear	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 bear	det
5	polar	polar	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 bear	amod
6	bear	bear	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 skin	nmod
7	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 black	cop
8	black	black	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 translucent	punct
10	whereas	whereas	SCONJ	_	14 translucent	mark
11	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 hairs	nmod:poss
12	hairs	hair	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 translucent	nsubj
13	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 translucent	cop
14	translucent	translucent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 black	conj
15	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 appear	cc
16	merely	merely	ADV	_	17 appear	advmod
17	appear	appear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 black	conj
18	white	white	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 appear	xcomp
19	by	by	ADP	_	21 scattering	case
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 scattering	det
21	scattering	scattering	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 appear	obl
22	of	of	ADP	_	23 light	case
23	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 scattering	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	present	the skin of the polar bear	black property	tree rules
2	is	present	skin's hairs	translucent property	tree rules
3	appear	present	the skin of the polar bear not said here	by the scattering of light; merely, white property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by scattering=Location

Option 4

The polar bear possesses no fur whatsoever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 bear	det
2	polar	polar	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 bear	amod
3	bear	bear	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 possesses	nsubj
4	possesses	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	6 fur	det
6	fur	fur	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 possesses	obj
7	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	4 possesses	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	the polar bear	no fur				whatsoever property	vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot fur=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.

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