Exam question 1 · The insect house: ants, stick insects, tarantulas and scor…

Identify the principal purpose for which leafcutter ants convey fragments of leaves to their nest.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, leafcutter ants · What happens: identify, convey · To what, where: principal purpose, fragments, nest

This is exam question 1 of lesson 97 «The insect house: ants, stick insects, tarantulas and scorpions» 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 purpose	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 purpose	amod
4	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 convey	obl
7	leafcutter	leafcutter	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 ants	compound
8	ants	ant	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 convey	nsubj
9	convey	convey	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 purpose	acl:relcl
10	fragments	fragment	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 convey	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	12 leaves	case
12	leaves	leaf	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 fragments	nmod
13	to	to	ADP	_	15 nest	case
14	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 nest	nmod:poss
15	nest	nest	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 convey	obl
16	.	.	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 purpose					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent purpose=Theme
2	convey	present	leafcutter ants	fragments of leaves	ants's nest			for the principal purpose	vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent fragment=Topic to nest=Recipient

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 bedding of the queen

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 bedding	det
2	bedding	bedding	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 queen	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 queen	det
5	queen	queen	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 bedding	nmod

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

Option 2

Construction of the walls and the roof of the underground nest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Construction	Construction	PROPN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	of	of	ADP	_	4 walls	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 walls	det
4	walls	wall	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Construction	nmod
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 roof	cc
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 roof	det
7	roof	roof	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Construction	conj
8	of	of	ADP	_	11 nest	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 nest	det
10	underground	underground	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 nest	amod
11	nest	nest	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 roof	nmod

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

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The cultivation of a fungus upon which the colony subsists

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cultivation	det
2	cultivation	cultivation	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 subsists	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 fungus	case
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 fungus	det
5	fungus	fungus	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 cultivation	nmod
6	upon	upon	ADP	_	7 which	case
7	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 colony	obl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 colony	det
9	colony	colony	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 fungus	conj
10	subsists	subsist	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	subsist	present	the cultivation of a fungus and the colony						vn gorge-39.6 «NP V PP.patient»: agent=Agent
2	cultivate			a fungus and the colony					nom cultivation «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

Direct consumption of the leaves by the workers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Direct	direct	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 consumption	amod
2	consumption	consumption	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 leaves	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 leaves	det
5	leaves	leaf	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 consumption	nmod
6	by	by	ADP	_	8 workers	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 workers	det
8	workers	worker	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 consumption	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	consume		the workers	the leaves					nom consumption «act transitive»: of=patient by=agent

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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