Exam question 4 · Check the claim, not the person

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the substance which renders chocolate poisonous to dogs?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: substance · What happens: follow, characteris, render · To what, where: substance, chocolate, dogs

This is exam question 4 of lesson 188 «Check the claim, not the person» of the world 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 substance	det
10	substance	substance	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 renders	nsubj
12	renders	render	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 substance	acl:relcl
13	chocolate	chocolate	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 renders	obj
14	poisonous	poisonous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 renders	xcomp
15	to	to	ADP	_	16 dogs	case
16	dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 renders	obl
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund					vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the substance		of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	render	present	the substance	chocolate	dogs	poisonous property	vn give-13.1 «NP V NP PP.recipient»: agent=Agent chocolate=Theme to dog=Recipient

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

Sugar, which renders dogs excitable

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sugar	sugar	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 renders	punct
3	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 renders	nsubj
4	renders	render	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Sugar	acl:relcl
5	dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 renders	obj
6	excitable	excitable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 renders	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	render	present	Sugar	dogs				excitable property	vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent dog=Theme

Option 2

Cocoa butter, which dogs cannot swallow or digest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Cocoa	cocoa	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 butter	compound
2	butter	butter	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 swallow	punct
4	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 swallow	obj
5	dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 swallow	nsubj
6	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 swallow	aux
7	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	8 swallow	advmod
8	swallow	swallow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 butter	conj
9	or	or	CCONJ	_	10 digest	cc
10	digest	digest	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 swallow	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not swallow	can	dogs	Cocoa butter					vn gobble-39.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent which=Patient
2	digest	infinitive	dogs not said here						tree rules

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Milk, which dogs are unable to drink

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Milk	milk	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 unable	punct
3	which	which	DET	PronType=Int	4 dogs	det
4	dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 unable	nsubj
5	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 unable	cop
6	unable	unable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Milk	conj
7	to	to	PART	_	8 drink	mark
8	drink	drink	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 unable	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	which dogs					unable property	tree rules
2	drink	to-infinitive	which dogs not said here						vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Theobromine, which dogs metabolise poorly

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Theobromine	theobromine	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 metabolise	punct
3	which	which	DET	PronType=Int	4 dogs	det
4	dogs	dog	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 metabolise	nsubj
5	metabolise	metabolise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Theobromine	acl:relcl
6	poorly	poorly	ADV	_	5 metabolise	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	metabolise	present	which dogs					poorly property	tree rules

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/world/188-check-the-claim-not-the-person/e4/