Exam question 1 · Sugar, teeth and the dentist

Identify the principal process by which dental caries is initiated.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, principal process · What happens: identify, initiate · To what, where: principal process, dental caries

This is exam question 1 of lesson 24 «Sugar, teeth and the dentist» of the medicine 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 process	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 process	amod
4	process	process	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 initiated	obl
7	dental	dental	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 caries	amod
8	caries	caries	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 initiated	nsubj:pass
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 initiated	aux:pass
10	initiated	initiate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 process	acl:relcl
11	.	.	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 process					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent process=Theme
2	initiate	present · passive	the principal process	dental caries					vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient

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

Mechanical abrasion from the consumption of firm fruit

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Mechanical	mechanical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 abrasion	amod
2	abrasion	abrasion	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	from	from	ADP	_	5 consumption	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 consumption	det
5	consumption	consumption	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 abrasion	nmod
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 fruit	case
7	firm	firm	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 fruit	amod
8	fruit	fruit	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 consumption	nmod

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

Option 2

Excessive brushing with fluoride preparations

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Excessive	Excessive	PROPN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	brushing	brush	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	1 Excessive	acl
3	with	with	ADP	_	5 preparations	case
4	fluoride	fluoride	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 preparations	compound
5	preparations	preparation	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 brushing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	brush	gerund	Excessive not said here					with fluoride preparations	vn floss-41.2.1 «NP V PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with preparation=Instrument

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Acid produced by plaque bacteria from dietary sugar dissolves the enamel

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Acid	acid	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 dissolves	nsubj
2	produced	produce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Acid	acl
3	by	by	ADP	_	5 bacteria	case
4	plaque	plaque	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 bacteria	compound
5	bacteria	bacterium	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 produced	obl:agent
6	from	from	ADP	_	8 sugar	case
7	dietary	dietary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 sugar	amod
8	sugar	sugar	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 produced	obl
9	dissolves	dissolve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 enamel	det
11	enamel	enamel	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 dissolves	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	produce	participle		Acid not said here		dietary sugar			vn create-26.4 «NP V NP PP.material»: agent=Agent from sugar=Material
2	dissolve	present	Acid	the enamel					vn break-45.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent enamel=Patient

Option 4

The consumption of milk

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

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

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

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/medicine/24-sugar-teeth-and-the-dentist/e1/