Exam question 2 · The elephant house: herds, feet, food and the mouse myth

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the reaction of elephants to mice.

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

This is exam question 2 of lesson 83 «The elephant house: herds, feet, food and the mouse myth» 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 reaction	det
11	reaction	reaction	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 elephants	case
13	elephants	elephant	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 reaction	nmod
14	to	to	ADP	_	15 mice	case
15	mice	mouse	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 elephants	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 reaction of elephants to mice		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus reaction=Experiencer
4	react		elephants to mice			nom reaction «process 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

Elephants experience acute terror in the presence of mice

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Elephants	elephant	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 experience	nsubj
2	experience	experience	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	acute	acute	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 terror	amod
4	terror	terror	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 experience	obj
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 presence	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 presence	det
7	presence	presence	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 experience	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 mice	case
9	mice	mouse	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 presence	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	experience	present	Elephants	acute terror		the presence of mice			vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer terror=Stimulus

Option 2

Elephants regularly prey upon mice

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Elephants	elephant	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
2	regularly	regularly	ADV	_	3 prey	advmod
3	prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Elephants	conj
4	upon	upon	ADP	_	5 mice	case
5	mice	mouse	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Elephants	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

Mice are known to enter the trunk and suffocate elephants

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Mice	mouse	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 known	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 known	aux:pass
3	known	know	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 enter	mark
5	enter	enter	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 known	xcomp
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 trunk	det
7	trunk	trunk	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 enter	obj
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 suffocate	cc
9	suffocate	suffocate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 known	conj
10	elephants	elephant	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 suffocate	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	roles by
1	know	present · passive	Mice	tree rules
2	enter	to-infinitive	the trunk	vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme trunk=Destination
3	suffocate	present	elephants	vn suffocate-40.7 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent elephant=Patient

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

Elephants may be startled by sudden movement near their feet

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Elephants	elephant	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 startled	nsubj:pass
2	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 startled	aux
3	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	4 startled	aux:pass
4	startled	startle	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 movement	case
6	sudden	sudden	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 movement	amod
7	movement	movement	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 startled	obl
8	near	near	ADP	_	10 feet	case
9	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 feet	nmod:poss
10	feet	foot	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 startled	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	startle	may · passive	sudden movement	Elephants		Elephants's feet			vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus subject=Experiencer

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/83-elephant-house-herds-feet-food-mouse-myth/e2/