Exam question 1 · Wild birds, bats and germs from animals

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the carrying of germs by animals?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris, carry

This is exam question 1 of lesson 29 «Wild birds, bats and germs from animals» 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 carrying	det
10	carrying	carry	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 characterises	advcl
11	of	of	ADP	_	12 germs	case
12	germs	germ	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 carrying	obl
13	by	by	ADP	_	14 animals	case
14	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 carrying	obl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund		vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	carry	gerund	of germs; by animals	vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.initial_location»: agent=Agent of germ=Initial_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 · ← Mova's choice

Only wild animals ever carry germs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Only	only	ADV	_	3 animals	advmod
2	wild	wild	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 animals	amod
3	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 carry	nsubj
4	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	5 carry	advmod
5	carry	carry	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	germs	germ	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 carry	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	carry	present	wild animals	germs			ever		vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent germ=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Animals may carry germs harmful to people even whilst appearing healthy

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 carry	nsubj
2	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 carry	aux
3	carry	carry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	germs	germ	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 carry	obj
5	harmful	harmful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 carry	xcomp
6	to	to	ADP	_	7 people	case
7	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 carry	obl
8	even	even	ADV	_	10 appearing	advmod
9	whilst	whilst	SCONJ	_	10 appearing	mark
10	appearing	appear	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 carry	advcl
11	healthy	healthy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 appearing	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	carry	may	Animals	germs	people			harmful property	vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent germ=Theme to people=Destination
2	appear	gerund	Animals not said here					healthy property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

Only animals that appear ill carry germs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Only	only	ADV	_	2 animals	advmod
2	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 carry	nsubj
3	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 appear	nsubj
4	appear	appear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 animals	acl:relcl
5	ill	ill	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 appear	xcomp
6	carry	carry	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	germs	germ	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 carry	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	appear	present	animals					ill property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	carry	present	animals	germs					vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent germ=Theme

Option 4

Germs from animals cannot affect people

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Germs	germ	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 affect	nsubj
2	from	from	ADP	_	3 animals	case
3	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Germs	nmod
4	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 affect	aux
5	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	6 affect	advmod
6	affect	affect	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 affect	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not affect	can	Germs from animals	people					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus people=Experiencer

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/29-germs-from-animals/e1/