Exam question 3 · The Arctic: ice, snow and the polar bear's world

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the alleged mass suicide of lemmings.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts · What happens: select, establish, concern, allege · To what, where: response, alleged mass suicide

This is exam question 3 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	xcomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 facts	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 facts	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 facts	amod
8	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 facts	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 suicide	det
11	alleged	allege	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	13 suicide	amod
12	mass	mass	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 suicide	amod
13	suicide	suicide	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
14	of	of	ADP	_	15 lemmings	case
15	lemmings	lemming	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 suicide	nmod
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response	consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the alleged mass suicide of lemmings		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus suicide=Experiencer
4	allege speech: other	participle				vn say-37.7-1 «NP V how S»: 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

Lemmings leap from cliffs in great numbers each winter

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Lemmings	lemming	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 leap	nsubj
2	leap	leap	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	from	from	ADP	_	4 cliffs	case
4	cliffs	cliff	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 leap	obl
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 numbers	case
6	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 numbers	amod
7	numbers	number	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 leap	obl
8	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	9 winter	det
9	winter	winter	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 leap	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	leap	present	Lemmings			cliffs	winter	in great numbers	vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from cliff=Trajectory

Option 2

Lemmings leap from cliffs only in years of abundance, when their numbers exceed the food

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Lemmings	lemming	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 leap	nsubj
2	leap	leap	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	from	from	ADP	_	4 cliffs	case
4	cliffs	cliff	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 leap	obl
5	only	only	ADV	_	7 years	advmod
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 years	case
7	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 leap	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 abundance	case
9	abundance	abundance	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 years	nmod
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 exceed	punct
11	when	when	SCONJ	_	14 exceed	mark
12	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 numbers	nmod:poss
13	numbers	number	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 exceed	nsubj
14	exceed	exceed	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 leap	conj
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 food	det
16	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 exceed	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	leap	present	Lemmings			cliffs	year		vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from cliff=Trajectory
2	exceed	present	Lemmings's numbers	the food					vn exceed-90 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot food=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The notion is a myth, reinforced by a film of 1958 in which the scene was contrived

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 notion	det
2	notion	notion	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 myth	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 myth	cop
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 myth	det
5	myth	myth	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 reinforced	punct
7	reinforced	reinforce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 myth	acl
8	by	by	ADP	_	10 film	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 film	det
10	film	film	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 reinforced	obl
11	of	of	ADP	_	12 1958	case
12	1958	1958	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	10 film	nmod
13	in	in	ADP	_	14 which	case
14	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	18 contrived	obl
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 scene	det
16	scene	scene	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 contrived	nsubj:pass
17	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	18 contrived	aux:pass
18	contrived	contrive	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 film	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the notion	a myth			tree rules
2	reinforce	participle		a myth not said here		by a film of 1958	vn support-15.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot
3	contrive	past · passive		the scene	a film of 1958		vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: subject=Result

Option 4

The phenomenon has been observed by every Arctic explorer

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 phenomenon	det
2	phenomenon	phenomenon	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 observed	nsubj:pass
3	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 observed	aux
4	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	5 observed	aux:pass
5	observed	observe	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	by	by	ADP	_	9 explorer	case
7	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	9 explorer	det
8	Arctic	arctic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 explorer	amod
9	explorer	explorer	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 observed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	observe	present · perfect · passive	every Arctic explorer	the phenomenon					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent subject=Topic

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/6-the-arctic/e3/