Exam question 2 · Cells, bones and muscles

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the action of skeletal muscle upon bone?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: skeletal muscle · What happens: follow, characteris, act · To what, where: action

This is exam question 2 of lesson 64 «Cells, bones and muscles» 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 action	det
10	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 muscle	case
12	skeletal	skeletal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 muscle	amod
13	muscle	muscle	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 action	nmod
14	upon	upon	ADP	_	15 bone	case
15	bone	bone	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 muscle	nmod
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the action of skeletal muscle upon bone	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	act		skeletal muscle upon bone			nom action «act intransitive»: of=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

Muscle rotates bones by spinning them within their sockets

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Muscle	muscle	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 rotates	nsubj
2	rotates	rotate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	bones	bone	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 rotates	obj
4	by	by	SCONJ	_	5 spinning	mark
5	spinning	spin	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 rotates	advcl
6	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 spinning	obj
7	within	within	ADP	_	9 sockets	case
8	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 sockets	nmod:poss
9	sockets	socket	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 spinning	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	rotate	present	Muscle	bones					vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location bone=Theme
2	spin	gerund	Muscle not said here	bones = bone				within bones's sockets	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent they=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Muscle acts exclusively by pushing

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Muscle	muscle	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 acts	nsubj
2	acts	act	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	exclusively	exclusively	ADV	_	2 acts	advmod
4	by	by	SCONJ	_	5 pushing	mark
5	pushing	push	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 acts	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	act	present	Muscle					exclusively property	vn act-114-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	push	gerund	Muscle not said here						vn push-12-1-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Muscle acts upon bone only during sleep

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Muscle	muscle	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 acts	nsubj
2	acts	act	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	upon	upon	ADP	_	4 bone	case
4	bone	bone	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 acts	obl
5	only	only	ADV	_	7 sleep	advmod
6	during	during	ADP	_	7 sleep	case
7	sleep	sleep	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 acts	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	act	present	Muscle				during sleep	upon bone	vn act-114-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Muscle acts only by pulling, often in opposing pairs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Muscle	muscle	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 acts	nsubj
2	acts	act	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	only	only	ADV	_	5 pulling	advmod
4	by	by	SCONJ	_	5 pulling	mark
5	pulling	pull	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 acts	advcl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 opposing	punct
7	often	often	ADV	_	9 opposing	advmod
8	in	in	SCONJ	_	9 opposing	mark
9	opposing	oppose	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 pulling	conj
10	pairs	pair	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 opposing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	act	present	Muscle			vn act-114-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	pull	gerund	Muscle not said here			vn slide-11.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	oppose	gerund	Muscle not said here	pairs	often property	vn amalgamate-22.2-3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pair=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/64-cells-bones-and-muscles/e2/