Exam question 2 · When a small pet dies: fish, hamsters and budgies

Identify the principal distinction between hibernation and death in a tortoise.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify · To what, where: principal distinction, tortoise

This is exam question 2 of lesson 55 «When a small pet dies: fish, hamsters and budgies» of the religion ethics 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 distinction	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 distinction	amod
4	distinction	distinction	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	between	between	ADP	_	6 hibernation	case
6	hibernation	hibernation	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 distinction	nmod
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 death	cc
8	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 distinction	conj
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 tortoise	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 tortoise	det
11	tortoise	tortoise	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obl
12	.	.	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 distinction and death		a tortoise		between hibernation	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent distinction=Theme

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

In hibernation the heart ceases to beat entirely

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	In	in	ADP	_	2 hibernation	case
2	hibernation	hibernation	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 ceases	obl
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 heart	det
4	heart	heart	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 ceases	nsubj
5	ceases	cease	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 beat	mark
7	beat	beat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 ceases	xcomp
8	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	7 beat	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cease	present	the heart			hibernation			vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality
2	beat	to-infinitive	the heart not said here					entirely property	vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

Hibernation is permanent whereas death is temporary

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Hibernation	hibernation	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 permanent	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 permanent	cop
3	permanent	permanent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	whereas	whereas	SCONJ	_	7 temporary	mark
5	death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 temporary	nsubj
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 temporary	cop
7	temporary	temporary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 permanent	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Hibernation					permanent property	tree rules
2	is	present	death					temporary property	tree rules

Option 3

There exists no distinction whatsoever between them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	There	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	2 exists	expl
2	exists	exist	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 distinction	det
4	distinction	distinction	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 exists	obj
5	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	2 exists	advmod
6	between	between	ADP	_	7 them	case
7	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 exists	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	exist	present		no distinction		there		between them = they; whatsoever property	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

In hibernation respiration and heartbeat continue at a reduced rate

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	In	in	ADP	_	3 respiration	case
2	hibernation	hibernation	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 respiration	compound
3	respiration	respiration	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 continue	obl
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 heartbeat	cc
5	heartbeat	heartbeat	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 respiration	conj
6	continue	continue	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	at	at	ADP	_	10 rate	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 rate	det
9	reduced	reduce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 rate	amod
10	rate	rate	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 continue	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	continue	present				hibernation respiration and heartbeat		at a reduced rate	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	reduce	participle							vn limit-76 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer

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/religion-ethics/55-when-a-small-pet-dies-fish-hamsters-and-budgies/e2/