Exam question 2 · Bites, stings and things you find on the ground

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises a snake that appears dead?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: snake · What happens: follow, characteris, appear · To what, where: snake

This is exam question 2 of lesson 238 «Bites, stings and things you find on the ground» of the everyday 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 snake	det
10	snake	snake	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 appears	nsubj
12	appears	appear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 snake	acl:relcl
13	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 appears	xcomp
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		a snake	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	appear	present	a snake		dead property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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

It is safe once it stops moving

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	3 safe	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 safe	cop
3	safe	safe	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	once	once	SCONJ	_	6 stops	mark
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 stops	nsubj
6	stops	stop	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 safe	advcl
7	moving	move	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 stops	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	present	It	safe property	tree rules
2	stop	present	it		vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality
3	move	gerund			vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

It may be picked up safely by the tail

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	4 picked	nsubj:pass
2	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 picked	aux
3	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	4 picked	aux:pass
4	picked	pick	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	up	up	ADP	_	4 picked	compound:prt
6	safely	safely	ADV	_	4 picked	advmod
7	by	by	ADP	_	9 tail	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 tail	det
9	tail	tail	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 picked	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pick up	may · passive	the tail	It				safely property	vn discover-84-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Topic

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

It may still bite and is left alone

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	4 bite	nsubj
2	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 bite	aux
3	still	still	ADV	_	4 bite	advmod
4	bite	bite	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 left	cc
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 left	aux:pass
7	left	leave	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 bite	conj
8	alone	alone	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 left	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	bite	may	It				still		vn swat-18.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent
2	leave	present · passive						alone property	vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V»

Option 4

It cannot bite and may be handled

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	4 bite	nsubj
2	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 bite	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 bite	advmod
4	bite	bite	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 handled	cc
6	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 handled	aux
7	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	8 handled	aux:pass
8	handled	handle	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 bite	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not bite	can	It						vn swat-18.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent
2	handle	may · passive							vn hold-15.1 «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/everyday/238-bites-and-things-you-find/e2/