Exam question 4 · Bites, stings and things you find on the ground

Ascertain the reason for which one does not sit upon ant hills in parts of the USA and Australia.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, one · What happens: ascertain, not sit · To what, where: reason, parts

This is exam question 4 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 sit	obl
6	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 sit	nsubj
7	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 sit	aux
8	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	9 sit	advmod
9	sit	sit	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 reason	parataxis
10	upon	upon	ADP	_	12 hills	case
11	ant	ant	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 hills	compound
12	hills	hill	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 sit	obl
13	in	in	ADP	_	14 parts	case
14	parts	part	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 sit	obl
15	of	of	ADP	_	17 USA	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 USA	det
17	USA	USA	PROPN	Number=Sing	14 parts	nmod
18	and	and	CCONJ	_	19 Australia	cc
19	Australia	Australia	PROPN	Number=Sing	17 USA	conj
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the reason					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	not sit	present · do-support	one			parts of the USA and Australia		for the reason; upon ant hills	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent upon hill=Location

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

The hills are protected by law

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 hills	det
2	hills	hill	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 protected	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 protected	aux:pass
4	protected	protect	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 law	case
6	law	law	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 protected	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	protect	present · passive	law	the hills					vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Beneficiary

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

Fire ants there may sting many times

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 ants	compound
2	ants	ant	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 sting	nsubj
3	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	5 sting	expl
4	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 sting	aux
5	sting	sting	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 times	amod
7	times	time	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 sting	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sting	may	Fire ants			there	time		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer

Option 3

Ants there are poisonous to eat

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ants	ant	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 poisonous	nsubj
2	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	1 Ants	expl
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 poisonous	cop
4	poisonous	poisonous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 eat	mark
6	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 poisonous	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Ants					poisonous property	tree rules
2	eat	to-infinitive	Ants not said here						vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

The hills are made of hot sand

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 hills	det
2	hills	hill	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 made	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 made	aux:pass
4	made	make	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 sand	case
6	hot	hot	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 sand	amod
7	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 made	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present · passive		the hills				of hot sand	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product

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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