Exam question 1 · Snakes, spiders and scorpions

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the circumstances in which venomous snakes and spiders commonly bite?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: circumstances

This is exam question 1 of lesson 25 «Snakes, spiders and scorpions» 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	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 circumstances	det
10	circumstances	circumstance	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obj
11	in	in	ADP	_	12 which	case
12	which	which	DET	PronType=Int	14 snakes	det
13	venomous	venomous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 snakes	amod
14	snakes	snake	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 circumstances	nmod
15	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 spiders	cc
16	spiders	spider	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 snakes	conj
17	commonly	commonly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 bite	amod
18	bite	bite	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 snakes	obj
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the circumstances which venomous snakes and spiders				of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules

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

Without any provocation whatsoever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Without	without	ADP	_	3 provocation	case
2	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	3 provocation	det
3	provocation	provocation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	3 provocation	advmod

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

Option 2

When a person walks past at a distance

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	When	when	SCONJ	_	4 walks	mark
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 person	det
3	person	person	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 walks	nsubj
4	walks	walk	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	past	past	ADV	_	4 walks	advmod
6	at	at	ADP	_	8 distance	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 distance	det
8	distance	distance	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 walks	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	walk	present	a person					at a distance; past property	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at distance=Trajectory

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

When they are stepped upon, touched or cornered

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	When	when	ADV	PronType=Int	4 stepped	advmod
2	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 stepped	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 stepped	aux:pass
4	stepped	step	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	upon	upon	ADP	_	4 stepped	obl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 touched	punct
7	touched	touch	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 stepped	conj
8	or	or	CCONJ	_	9 cornered	cc
9	cornered	corner	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 touched	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	roles by
1	step	present · passive	they	vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme
2	touch	participle		vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	corner	participle		tree rules

Option 4

Only in the hours of darkness

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Only	only	ADV	_	4 hours	advmod
2	in	in	ADP	_	4 hours	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 hours	det
4	hours	hour	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 darkness	case
6	darkness	darkness	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 hours	nmod

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

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/25-snakes-spiders-and-scorpions/e1/