Exam question 3 · Habitats and adaptations

Identify the principal reason for which many desert animals possess large ears.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, many desert animals · What happens: identify, possess · To what, where: principal reason, large ears

This is exam question 3 of lesson 27 «Habitats and adaptations» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 possess	obl
7	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 animals	amod
8	desert	desert	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 animals	compound
9	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 possess	nsubj
10	possess	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl:relcl
11	large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 ears	amod
12	ears	ear	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 possess	obj
13	.	.	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 reason					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	possess	present	many desert animals	large ears				for the principal reason	vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot ear=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 · ✓ the right answer

The ears assist in the loss of bodily heat

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 ears	det
2	ears	ear	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 assist	nsubj
3	assist	assist	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 loss	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 loss	det
6	loss	loss	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 assist	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 heat	case
8	bodily	bodily	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 heat	amod
9	heat	heat	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 loss	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	assist	present	the ears			the loss of bodily heat			vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent

Option 2

The ears shield the eyes from the Sun

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 ears	det
2	ears	ear	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 shield	nsubj
3	shield	shield	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 eyes	det
5	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 shield	obj
6	from	from	ADP	_	8 Sun	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Sun	det
8	Sun	Sun	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 shield	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	shield	present	the ears	the eyes		the Sun			tree rules

Option 3

The ears retain bodily heat

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 ears	det
2	ears	ear	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 retain	nsubj
3	retain	retain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	bodily	bodily	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 heat	amod
5	heat	heat	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 retain	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	retain	present	the ears	bodily heat					tree rules

Option 4

The ears store water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 ears	det
2	ears	ear	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 store	nsubj
3	store	store	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 store	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	store	present	the ears	water					vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent water=Theme

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/27-habitats-and-adaptations/e3/