Exam question 3 · Growing: teeth, height, hair, nails, from baby to grown-up

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the cutting of hair and nails?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: hair · What happens: follow, characteris, cut · To what, where: cutting

This is exam question 3 of lesson 71 «Growing: teeth, height, hair, nails, from baby to grown-up» 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 cutting	det
10	cutting	cutting	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	12 hair	case
12	hair	hair	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 cutting	nmod
13	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 nails	cc
14	nails	nail	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 hair	conj
15	?	?	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 cutting of hair and nails	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	cut		hair and nails			nom cutting «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 · ← Mova's choice

Cutting causes the follicle to cease production permanently

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Cutting	cut	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 causes	nsubj
2	causes	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 follicle	det
4	follicle	follicle	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 causes	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 cease	mark
6	cease	cease	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 causes	advcl
7	production	production	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 cease	obj
8	permanently	permanently	ADV	_	6 cease	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	cut	gerund			vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer
2	cause	present	the follicle		vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition follicle=Patient
3	cease	to-infinitive	production	permanently property	vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: agent=Subeventuality production=Eventuality

Option 2

The portions removed are living tissue richly supplied with both nerves and blood vessels

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 portions	det
2	portions	portion	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 tissue	nsubj
3	removed	remove	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 portions	acl
4	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 tissue	cop
5	living	living	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 tissue	amod
6	tissue	tissue	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	richly	richly	ADV	_	8 supplied	advmod
8	supplied	supply	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 tissue	acl
9	with	with	ADP	_	11 nerves	case
10	both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	11 nerves	det
11	nerves	nerve	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 supplied	obl
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 vessels	cc
13	blood	blood	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 vessels	compound
14	vessels	vessel	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 nerves	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	remove	participle		the portions not said here		vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	is a	present	the portions	living tissue		tree rules
3	supply	participle		living tissue not said here	with both nerves and blood vessels; richly property	vn fulfilling-13.4.1-1 «NP V NP-Fulfilling PP.theme»: agent=Agent with nerve=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The portions removed are composed of keratin, contain no nerves and are not alive

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 portions	det
2	portions	portion	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 contain	nsubj
3	removed	remove	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 portions	acl
4	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 removed	aux:pass
5	composed	compose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 removed	conj
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 keratin	case
7	keratin	keratin	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 composed	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	2 portions	punct
9	contain	contain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	11 nerves	det
11	nerves	nerve	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 contain	obj
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 alive	cc
13	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 alive	cop
14	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	15 alive	advmod
15	alive	alive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 contain	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	remove	present · passive		the portions not said here		vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»
2	compose	participle			of keratin	vn create-26.4-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	contain	present	the portions	no nerves		vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot nerve=Theme
4	not is	present	the portions not said here		alive property	tree rules

Option 4

Cutting causes subsequent growth to be thicker and more rapid

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Cutting	cut	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 causes	nsubj
2	causes	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	subsequent	subsequent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 growth	amod
4	growth	growth	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 causes	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	7 thicker	mark
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 thicker	cop
7	thicker	thick	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	2 causes	parataxis
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 rapid	cc
9	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	10 rapid	advmod
10	rapid	rapid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 thicker	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	cut	gerund			vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer
2	cause	present	subsequent growth		vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition growth=Patient
3	is	to-infinitive		thick property	tree rules
4	be				tree rules

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/71-growing-from-baby-to-grown-up/e3/