Exam question 3 · Changing-room germs

Ascertain the principal source of the odour of kit retained unwashed for several days.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, retain · To what, where: principal source

This is exam question 3 of lesson 59 «Changing-room germs» 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 source	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 source	amod
4	source	source	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 odour	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 odour	det
7	odour	odour	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 source	nmod
8	of	of	ADP	_	11 unwashed	case
9	kit	kit	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 unwashed	compound
10	retained	retain	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 unwashed	amod
11	unwashed	unwashed	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 odour	nmod
12	for	for	ADP	_	14 days	case
13	several	several	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 days	amod
14	days	day	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 unwashed	nmod
15	.	.	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 principal source of the odour of kit retained unwashed for several days					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent source=Topic
2	retain	participle							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

The fabric of the bag, which decays over time

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 fabric	det
2	fabric	fabric	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 bag	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 bag	det
5	bag	bag	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 fabric	nmod
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 decays	punct
7	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 decays	nsubj
8	decays	decay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 fabric	acl:relcl
9	over	over	ADP	_	10 time	case
10	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 decays	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	decay	present	the fabric of the bag				time		vn entity_specific_cos-45.5 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 2

Excessive washing of the garments

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Excessive	excessive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 washing	amod
2	washing	washing	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 garments	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 garments	det
5	garments	garment	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 washing	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wash			the garments					nom washing «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Bacteria feeding upon perspiration

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Bacteria	bacterium	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
2	feeding	feed	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	1 Bacteria	acl
3	upon	upon	ADP	_	4 perspiration	case
4	perspiration	perspiration	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 feeding	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	feed	gerund	Bacteria not said here					upon perspiration	vn gorge-39.6 «NP V PP.patient»: agent=Agent

Option 4

Perspiration in its fresh state

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Perspiration	perspiration	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	in	in	ADP	_	5 state	case
3	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 state	nmod:poss
4	fresh	fresh	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 state	amod
5	state	state	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Perspiration	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/medicine/59-changing-room-germs/e3/