Exam question 4 · Lungs and breathing

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the respiration of whales.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, established facts, whales · What happens: select, establish, concern, respire · To what, where: response, respiration

This is exam question 4 of lesson 66 «Lungs and breathing» 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	11 respiration	det
11	respiration	respiration	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 whales	case
13	whales	whale	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 respiration	nmod
14	.	.	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 respiration of whales		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus respiration=Experiencer
4	respire		whales			nom respiration «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

Whales extract oxygen from sea water by means of gills

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Whales	whale	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 extract	nsubj
2	extract	extract	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	oxygen	oxygen	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 extract	obj
4	from	from	ADP	_	6 water	case
5	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 water	compound
6	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 extract	obl
7	by	by	ADP	_	8 means	case
8	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 extract	parataxis
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 gills	case
10	gills	gill	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 means	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	extract	present	Whales	oxygen		sea water			vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP PP»: agent=Agent oxygen=Theme from water=Initial_Location
2	mean	present						of gills	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent

Option 2

Whales respire through the skin alone while submerged

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Whales	whale	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 respire	nsubj
2	respire	respire	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	through	through	ADP	_	5 skin	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 skin	det
5	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 respire	obl
6	alone	alone	ADV	_	2 respire	advmod
7	while	while	SCONJ	_	8 submerged	mark
8	submerged	submerge	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 respire	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	respire	present	Whales			the skin		alone property	tree rules
2	submerge	participle	Whales not said here						vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 3

Whales do not require oxygen at any point in their lives

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Whales	whale	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 require	nsubj
2	do	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 require	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 require	advmod
4	require	require	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	oxygen	oxygen	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 require	obj
6	at	at	ADP	_	8 point	case
7	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	8 point	det
8	point	point	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 require	obl
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 lives	case
10	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 lives	nmod:poss
11	lives	life	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 require	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not require	present · do-support	Whales	oxygen		any point		in Whales's lives	vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme oxygen=Precondition

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Whales breathe air by means of lungs through a blowhole

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Whales	whale	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 breathe	nsubj
2	breathe	breathe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 breathe	obj
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 means	case
5	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 breathe	parataxis
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 lungs	case
7	lungs	lung	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 means	obl
8	through	through	ADP	_	10 blowhole	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 blowhole	det
10	blowhole	blowhole	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 means	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	breathe	present	Whales	air					vn breathe-40.1.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent air=Theme
2	mean	present				a blowhole		of lungs	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent

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/66-lungs-and-breathing/e4/