Exam question 4 · The reptile house: Komodo dragons, chameleons, tortoises a…

Determine the reason for which a tortoise is unable to depart from its shell.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, tortoise · What happens: determine, be, depart · To what, where: reason, shell

This is exam question 4 of lesson 88 «The reptile house: Komodo dragons, chameleons, tortoises and crocodiles» 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	9 unable	obl
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 tortoise	det
7	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 unable	nsubj
8	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 unable	cop
9	unable	unable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 reason	acl
10	to	to	PART	_	11 depart	mark
11	depart	depart	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 unable	xcomp
12	from	from	ADP	_	14 shell	case
13	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 shell	nmod:poss
14	shell	shell	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 depart	obl
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Determine	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	determine	imperative	you not said here	the reason			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	is	present	a tortoise			for the reason; unable property	tree rules
3	depart	to-infinitive	a tortoise not said here		tortoise's shell		vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme from shell=Initial_Location

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

The shell is too heavy to lift

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 shell	det
2	shell	shell	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 heavy	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 heavy	cop
4	too	too	ADV	_	5 heavy	advmod
5	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 lift	mark
7	lift	lift	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 heavy	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the shell					heavy property	tree rules
2	lift	to-infinitive	the shell not said here						vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

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

The shell forms part of its skeleton, joined to ribs and backbone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 shell	det
2	shell	shell	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 forms	nsubj
3	forms	form	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	part	part	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 forms	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 skeleton	case
6	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 skeleton	nmod:poss
7	skeleton	skeleton	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 part	nmod
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 joined	punct
9	joined	join	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 forms	conj
10	to	to	ADP	_	11 ribs	case
11	ribs	rib	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 joined	obl
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 backbone	cc
13	backbone	backbone	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 ribs	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	form	present	the shell	part of shell's skeleton					vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location part=Theme
2	join	participle	the shell not said here					to ribs and backbone	vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V PP.patient»: agent=Patient to rib=Co-Patient

Option 3

The shell has no opening of sufficient size

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 shell	det
2	shell	shell	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 has	nsubj
3	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	5 opening	det
5	opening	opening	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 has	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 size	case
7	sufficient	sufficient	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 size	amod
8	size	size	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 opening	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	the shell	no opening of sufficient size					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent opening=Patient

Option 4

The tortoise is held in place within the shell by its claws

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 tortoise	det
2	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 held	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 held	aux:pass
4	held	hold	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 place	case
6	place	place	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 held	obl
7	within	within	ADP	_	9 shell	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 shell	det
9	shell	shell	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 held	obl
10	by	by	ADP	_	12 claws	case
11	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 claws	nmod:poss
12	claws	claw	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 held	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hold	present · passive	tortoise's claws	the tortoise		place		within the shell	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent subject=Theme in place=Location

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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