Exam question 4 · The reptile house: snakes

Determine the reason for which the age of a rattlesnake cannot be ascertained by counting the rings of its rattle.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, age · What happens: determine, not ascertain, count, rattle · To what, where: reason, age, rings

This is exam question 4 of lesson 87 «The reptile house: snakes» 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	Determine	determine	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Determine	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	14 ascertained	obl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 age	det
7	age	age	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 ascertained	nsubj:pass
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 rattlesnake	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 rattlesnake	det
10	rattlesnake	rattlesnake	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 age	nmod
11	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	14 ascertained	aux
12	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	14 ascertained	advmod
13	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	14 ascertained	aux:pass
14	ascertained	ascertain	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 reason	acl:relcl
15	by	by	SCONJ	_	16 counting	mark
16	counting	count	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	14 ascertained	advcl
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 rings	det
18	rings	ring	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 counting	obj
19	of	of	ADP	_	21 rattle	case
20	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	21 rattle	nmod:poss
21	rattle	rattle	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 rings	nmod
22	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Determine	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	determine	imperative	you not said here	the reason		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	not ascertain	can · passive		the age of a rattlesnake	for the reason	vn ensure-99 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: subject=Theme for which=Beneficiary
3	count	gerund		the rings of age's rattle		vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ring=Theme
4	rattle		age			nom rattle «event intransitive»: poss=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

Rattlesnakes possess no rings

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Rattlesnakes	rattlesnake	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 possess	nsubj
2	possess	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 rings	det
4	rings	ring	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 possess	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	Rattlesnakes	no rings					vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot ring=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

A ring is added at each shedding, more than once a year, and rings break off

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 ring	det
2	ring	ring	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 added	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 added	aux:pass
4	added	add	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	at	at	ADP	_	7 shedding	case
6	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	7 shedding	det
7	shedding	shedding	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 added	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 more	punct
9	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	7 shedding	amod
10	than	than	ADP	_	13 year	case
11	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	13 year	advmod
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 year	det
13	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 more	obl
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 break	punct
15	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 break	cc
16	rings	ring	NOUN	Number=Plur	17 break	nsubj
17	break	break	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 added	conj
18	off	off	ADP	_	17 break	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	add speech: assert	present · passive		a ring		each shedding			vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
2	break off	present	rings						vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient

Option 3

The rings are removed by the keepers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 rings	det
2	rings	ring	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 removed	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 removed	aux:pass
4	removed	remove	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 keepers	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 keepers	det
7	keepers	keeper	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 removed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	remove	present · passive	the keepers	the rings					vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme

Option 4

Rings are added once per decade

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Rings	ring	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 added	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 added	aux:pass
3	added	add	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	3 added	advmod
5	per	per	ADP	_	6 decade	case
6	decade	decade	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 added	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	add speech: assert	present · passive		Rings			decade	once property	vn mix-22.1-2 «NP V NP»: subject=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.

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