Exam question 3 · Coral reefs, rockpools and the seashore

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the sex of clownfish.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, established facts · What happens: select, establish, concern, sex · To what, where: response, sex, clownfish

This is exam question 3 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	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 sex	det
11	sex	sex	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 clownfish	case
13	clownfish	clownfish	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 sex	nmod
14	.	.	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 sex of clownfish		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus sex=Experiencer
4	sex			clownfish		nom sex «act 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

Clownfish possess no sex whatsoever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Clownfish	clownfish	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 sex	det
4	sex	sex	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 possess	obj
5	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	2 possess	advmod

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

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

All clownfish hatch as males, and the largest individual of a group may become female

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	All	all	DET	PronType=Tot	2 clownfish	det
2	clownfish	clownfish	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 hatch	nsubj
3	hatch	hatch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	as	as	ADP	_	5 males	case
5	males	male	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 hatch	obl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 become	punct
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 become	cc
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 individual	det
9	largest	large	ADJ	Degree=Sup	10 individual	amod
10	individual	individual	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 become	nsubj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 group	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 group	det
13	group	group	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 individual	nmod
14	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	15 become	aux
15	become	become	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 hatch	conj
16	female	female	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 become	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hatch	present	all clownfish					as males	vn grow-26.2.1 «NP V NP.product PP.patient»: agent=Agent
2	become	may	the largest individual of a group					female property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

Option 3

All clownfish hatch as females and remain so

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	All	all	DET	PronType=Tot	2 clownfish	det
2	clownfish	clownfish	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 hatch	nsubj
3	hatch	hatch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	as	as	ADP	_	5 females	case
5	females	female	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 hatch	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 remain	cc
7	remain	remain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 hatch	conj
8	so	so	ADV	_	7 remain	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hatch	present	all clownfish					as females	vn grow-26.2.1 «NP V NP.product PP.patient»: agent=Agent
2	remain	present	all clownfish not said here						vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

The sex of clownfish is fixed for life at hatching and cannot alter under any circumstances

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 sex	det
2	sex	sex	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 fixed	nsubj:pass
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 clownfish	case
4	clownfish	clownfish	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 sex	nmod
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 fixed	aux:pass
6	fixed	fix	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	for	for	ADP	_	8 life	case
8	life	life	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 fixed	obl
9	at	at	ADP	_	10 hatching	case
10	hatching	hatching	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 life	nmod
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 alter	cc
12	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	14 alter	aux
13	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	14 alter	advmod
14	alter	alter	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 fixed	conj
15	under	under	ADP	_	17 circumstances	case
16	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	17 circumstances	det
17	circumstances	circumstance	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 alter	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	fix	present · passive	the sex of clownfish		for life at hatching	vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: subject=Product for life=Beneficiary
2	not alter	can		any circumstances		vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
3	sex		clownfish			nom sex «act transitive»: of=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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