Exam question 2 · Antarctica: penguins, seals and the coldest place on Earth

Identify the principal function of baleen in the feeding of the blue whale.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, blue whale · What happens: identify, feed · To what, where: principal function, feeding

This is exam question 2 of lesson 7 «Antarctica: penguins, seals and the coldest place on Earth» 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	_	6 baleen	case
6	baleen	baleen	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 function	nmod
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 feeding	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 feeding	det
9	feeding	feeding	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obl
10	of	of	ADP	_	13 whale	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 whale	det
12	blue	blue	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 whale	amod
13	whale	whale	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 feeding	nmod
14	.	.	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 baleen		the feeding of the blue whale			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent function=Theme
2	feed		the blue whale						nom feeding «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

Baleen serves to produce sound for echolocation

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Baleen	baleen	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 serves	nsubj
2	serves	serve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 produce	mark
4	produce	produce	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 serves	xcomp
5	sound	sound	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 produce	obj
6	for	for	ADP	_	7 echolocation	case
7	echolocation	echolocation	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 produce	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	serve	present	Baleen						tree rules
2	produce	to-infinitive	Baleen not said here	sound				for echolocation	vn create-26.4 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent sound=Result for echolocation=Beneficiary

Option 2

Baleen serves to pump air into the lungs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Baleen	baleen	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 serves	nsubj
2	serves	serve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 pump	mark
4	pump	pump	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 serves	xcomp
5	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 pump	obj
6	into	into	ADP	_	8 lungs	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 lungs	det
8	lungs	lung	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 pump	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	serve	present	Baleen						tree rules
2	pump	to-infinitive	Baleen not said here	air		the lungs			vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent air=Theme into lung=Destination

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Baleen retains the krill whilst permitting the expulsion of seawater from the mouth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Baleen	baleen	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 retains	nsubj
2	retains	retain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 krill	det
4	krill	krill	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 retains	obj
5	whilst	whilst	SCONJ	_	6 permitting	mark
6	permitting	permit	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 retains	advcl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 expulsion	det
8	expulsion	expulsion	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 permitting	obj
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 seawater	case
10	seawater	seawater	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 expulsion	nmod
11	from	from	ADP	_	13 mouth	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 mouth	det
13	mouth	mouth	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 permitting	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	retain	present	Baleen	the krill		tree rules
2	permit	gerund	Baleen not said here	the expulsion of seawater	the mouth	vn admit-64.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent expulsion=Theme
3	expel			seawater		nom expulsion «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

Baleen serves to masticate large fish

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Baleen	baleen	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 serves	nsubj
2	serves	serve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 masticate	mark
4	masticate	masticate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 serves	xcomp
5	large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 fish	amod
6	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 masticate	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	serve	present	Baleen						tree rules
2	masticate	to-infinitive	Baleen not said here	large fish					vn chew-39.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fish=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/7-antarctica/e2/