Exam question 4 · Animals in the sea and the river

Ascertain which of the following claims concerning the goldfish is consistent with experimental findings.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, concerning · What happens: ascertain, follow, concern, be · To what, where: following claims, goldfish

This is exam question 4 of lesson 11 «Animals in the sea and the river» 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	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 claims	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 claims	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 claims	det
5	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 claims	amod
6	claims	claim	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Ascertain	obj
7	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	11 consistent	csubj
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 goldfish	det
9	goldfish	goldfish	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 concerning	obj
10	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 consistent	cop
11	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 claims	acl
12	with	with	ADP	_	14 findings	case
13	experimental	experimental	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 findings	amod
14	findings	finding	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 consistent	obl
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the following claims		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent claim=Topic
2	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	concern	gerund		the goldfish		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus goldfish=Experiencer
4	is	present	concerning	the following claims not said here	with experimental findings; consistent 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

It is incapable of learning to respond to sounds

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 incapable	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 incapable	cop
3	incapable	incapable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	of	of	SCONJ	_	5 learning	mark
5	learning	learn	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 incapable	advcl
6	to	to	PART	_	7 respond	mark
7	respond	respond	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 learning	xcomp
8	to	to	ADP	_	9 sounds	case
9	sounds	sound	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 respond	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is	present	It	incapable property	tree rules
2	learn	gerund			vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	respond speech: other	to-infinitive		to sounds	vn respond-113 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent to sound=Theme

Option 2

It retains memories solely of colours

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 retains	nsubj
2	retains	retain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	memories	memory	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 retains	obj
4	solely	solely	ADV	_	6 colours	advmod
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 colours	case
6	colours	colour	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 retains	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	retain	present	It	memories					tree rules

Option 3

Its memory is limited to a period of approximately three seconds

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 memory	nmod:poss
2	memory	memory	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 limited	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 limited	aux:pass
4	limited	limit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 period	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 period	det
7	period	period	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 limited	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	11 seconds	case
9	approximately	approximately	ADV	_	10 three	advmod
10	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	11 seconds	nummod
11	seconds	second	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 period	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	limit	present · passive		Its memory				to a period of three seconds goal	vn limit-76 «NP V NP S_ING»: subject=Patient to period=Goal

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It is capable of retaining learned behaviour for months

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 capable	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 capable	cop
3	capable	capable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	of	of	SCONJ	_	5 retaining	mark
5	retaining	retain	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 capable	advcl
6	learned	learn	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 behaviour	amod
7	behaviour	behaviour	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 retaining	obj
8	for	for	ADP	_	9 months	case
9	months	month	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 retaining	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It			capable property	tree rules
2	retain	gerund		learned behaviour	month		tree rules
3	learn	participle					vn learn-14-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/11-animals-in-the-sea-and-the-river/e4/