Exam question 4 · Birds and baby animals

Ascertain the finding of the investigation conducted concerning the echo of a duck's quack.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, finding · What happens: ascertain, conduct, concern · To what, where: finding, echo

This is exam question 4 of lesson 10 «Birds and baby animals» of the myths 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 finding	det
3	finding	finding	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 investigation	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 investigation	det
6	investigation	investigation	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 conducted	obl
7	conducted	conduct	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 finding	acl:relcl
8	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 conducted	xcomp
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 echo	det
10	echo	echo	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 concerning	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	15 quack	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 duck	det
13	duck	duck	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 quack	nmod:poss
14	's	's	PART	_	13 duck	case
15	quack	quack	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 echo	nmod
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the finding		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent finding=Topic
2	conduct	past	the finding not said here		of the investigation	tree rules
3	concern	gerund	the finding not said here	the echo of a duck's quack		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus echo=Experiencer

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 investigation could not be completed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 investigation	det
2	investigation	investigation	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 completed	nsubj:pass
3	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 completed	aux
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	6 completed	advmod
5	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 completed	aux:pass
6	completed	complete	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not complete	could · passive		the investigation					vn complete-55.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Eventuality

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

The quack was found to produce no echo whatsoever in any room

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 quack	det
2	quack	quack	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 found	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 found	aux:pass
4	found	find	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 produce	mark
6	produce	produce	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 found	xcomp
7	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	8 echo	det
8	echo	echo	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 produce	obj
9	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	6 produce	advmod
10	in	in	ADP	_	12 room	case
11	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	12 room	det
12	room	room	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 produce	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	find	past · passive		the quack					vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Attribute clause=Theme
2	produce	to-infinitive	the quack not said here	no echo		any room		whatsoever property	vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent echo=Result

Option 3

Only the quacks of male ducks were found to echo

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Only	only	ADV	_	3 quacks	advmod
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 quacks	det
3	quacks	quack	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 found	nsubj:pass
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 ducks	case
5	male	male	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 ducks	amod
6	ducks	duck	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 quacks	nmod
7	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 found	aux:pass
8	found	find	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
9	to	to	PART	_	10 echo	mark
10	echo	echo	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 found	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	find	past · passive		the quacks of male ducks					vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Attribute clause=Theme
2	echo	to-infinitive	the quacks of male ducks not said here						vn sound_existence-47.4 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The quack was found to produce an echo, albeit a faint one

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 quack	det
2	quack	quack	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 found	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 found	aux:pass
4	found	find	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 produce	mark
6	produce	produce	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 found	xcomp
7	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 echo	det
8	echo	echo	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 produce	obj
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 one	punct
10	albeit	albeit	ADP	_	13 one	case
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 one	det
12	faint	faint	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 one	amod
13	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 produce	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	find	past · passive		the quack					vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Attribute clause=Theme
2	produce	to-infinitive	the quack not said here	a echo				albeit a faint one	vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent echo=Result

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/myths/10-birds-and-baby-animals/e4/