Exam question 2 · Coral reefs, rockpools and the seashore

Identify the principal cause of coral bleaching.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, cause · To what, where: principal cause, coral bleaching

This is exam question 2 of lesson 9 «Coral reefs, rockpools and the seashore» 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 cause	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 cause	amod
4	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 bleaching	case
6	coral	coral	NOUN	_	7 bleaching	compound
7	bleaching	bleaching	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 cause	nmod
8	.	.	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 cause of coral bleaching					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent cause=Theme
2	cause			coral bleaching					nom cause «event transitive»: of=patient

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

The onset of winter in tropical seas

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 onset	det
2	onset	onset	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 winter	case
4	winter	winter	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 onset	nmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 seas	case
6	tropical	tropical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 seas	amod
7	seas	sea	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 onset	nmod

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

Option 2

The application of paint by divers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 application	det
2	application	application	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 paint	case
4	paint	paint	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 application	nmod
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 divers	case
6	divers	diver	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 application	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	apply		paint						nom application «act intransitive»: of=agent

Option 3

Excessive cleaning by parrotfish

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Excessive	excessive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 cleaning	amod
2	cleaning	cleaning	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	by	by	ADP	_	4 parrotfish	case
4	parrotfish	parrotfish	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 cleaning	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	clean		parrotfish						nom cleaning «act intransitive»: by=agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Elevated sea temperatures induce corals to expel the algae resident within their tissues

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Elevated	elevate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 temperatures	amod
2	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 temperatures	compound
3	temperatures	temperature	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 induce	nsubj
4	induce	induce	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	corals	coral	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 induce	obj
6	to	to	PART	_	7 expel	mark
7	expel	expel	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 induce	advcl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 resident	det
9	algae	algae	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 resident	compound
10	resident	resident	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 expel	obj
11	within	within	ADP	_	13 tissues	case
12	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 tissues	nmod:poss
13	tissues	tissue	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 expel	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	elevate	participle				vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	induce	present	Elevated sea temperatures	corals		vn compel-59.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent coral=Patient
3	expel	to-infinitive	Elevated sea temperatures not said here	the algae resident	within temperatures's tissues	vn banish-10.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent resident=Theme

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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