Exam question 1 · The aquarium: the coral reef tank

Identify the principal reason for which the clownfish is not harmed by the tentacles of the sea anemone.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, tentacles · What happens: identify, not harm · To what, where: principal reason, clownfish

This is exam question 1 of lesson 90 «The aquarium: the coral reef tank» 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 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 harmed	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 clownfish	det
8	clownfish	clownfish	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 harmed	nsubj:pass
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 harmed	aux:pass
10	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	11 harmed	advmod
11	harmed	harm	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl
12	by	by	ADP	_	14 tentacles	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 tentacles	det
14	tentacles	tentacle	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 harmed	obl
15	of	of	ADP	_	18 anemone	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 anemone	det
17	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 anemone	compound
18	anemone	anemone	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 tentacles	nmod
19	.	.	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 reason					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	not harm	present · passive	the tentacles of the sea anemone	the clownfish				for the principal reason	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus subject=Experiencer

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

Sea anemones possess no stinging cells

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 anemones	compound
2	anemones	anemone	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 possess	nsubj
3	possess	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	6 cells	det
5	stinging	stinging	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 cells	compound
6	cells	cell	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 possess	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	Sea anemones	no stinging cells					vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot cell=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

A protective mucus upon its skin prevents the stinging

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 mucus	det
2	protective	protective	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 mucus	amod
3	mucus	mucus	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 prevents	nsubj
4	upon	upon	ADP	_	6 skin	case
5	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 skin	nmod:poss
6	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 mucus	nmod
7	prevents	prevent	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 stinging	det
9	stinging	stinging	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 prevents	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prevent	present	a protective mucus upon mucus's skin	the stinging					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer stinging=Theme

Option 3

It possesses an armoured shell

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 possesses	nsubj
2	possesses	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 shell	det
4	armoured	armoured	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 shell	amod
5	shell	shell	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 possesses	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	It	a armoured shell					vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot shell=Theme

Option 4

It moves too swiftly for the stinging cells to be discharged

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 moves	nsubj
2	moves	move	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	too	too	ADV	_	4 swiftly	advmod
4	swiftly	swiftly	ADV	_	2 moves	advmod
5	for	for	ADP	_	8 cells	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 cells	det
7	stinging	sting	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 cells	amod
8	cells	cell	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 moves	obl
9	to	to	PART	_	11 discharged	mark
10	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	11 discharged	aux:pass
11	discharged	discharge	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 moves	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	move	present	It	for the stinging cells; swiftly property	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme
2	sting	gerund			vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer
3	discharge	to-infinitive · passive			vn banish-10.2 «NP V NP»

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/90-aquarium-the-coral-reef-tank/e1/