Exam question 4 · Habitats and adaptations

Identify the principal advantage conferred upon a cactus by its spines in place of broad leaves.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, confer · To what, where: principal advantage

This is exam question 4 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 advantage	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 advantage	amod
4	advantage	advantage	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	conferred	confer	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 advantage	acl
6	upon	upon	ADP	_	8 cactus	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 cactus	det
8	cactus	cactus	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 conferred	obl
9	by	by	ADP	_	11 spines	case
10	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 spines	nmod:poss
11	spines	spine	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 conferred	obl
12	in	in	ADP	_	13 place	case
13	place	place	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 spines	nmod
14	of	of	ADP	_	16 leaves	case
15	broad	broad	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 leaves	amod
16	leaves	leaf	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 place	nmod
17	.	.	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 advantage					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent advantage=Theme
2	confer	participle		the principal advantage not said here				upon a cactus; by cactus's spines in place of broad leaves	vn chit_chat-37.6 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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

A reduced loss of water and protection from animals

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 loss	det
2	reduced	reduce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 loss	amod
3	loss	loss	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 water	case
5	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 loss	nmod
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 protection	cc
7	protection	protection	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 loss	conj
8	from	from	ADP	_	9 animals	case
9	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 loss	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reduce	participle							vn limit-76 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer

Option 2

An increased capacity to manufacture food in the sunlight

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 capacity	det
2	increased	increase	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 capacity	amod
3	capacity	capacity	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 manufacture	mark
5	manufacture	manufacture	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 capacity	acl
6	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 manufacture	obj
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 sunlight	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 sunlight	det
9	sunlight	sunlight	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 manufacture	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	increase	participle							vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient
2	manufacture	to-infinitive		food		the sunlight			vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent food=Result

Option 3

An attraction of pollinating insects

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 attraction	det
2	attraction	attraction	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	SCONJ	_	4 pollinating	mark
4	pollinating	pollinate	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 attraction	acl
5	insects	insect	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 pollinating	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pollinate	gerund	a attraction not said here	insects					tree rules

Option 4

An increased absorption of rainfall

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 absorption	det
2	increased	increase	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 absorption	amod
3	absorption	absorption	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 rainfall	case
5	rainfall	rainfall	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 absorption	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	increase	participle							vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient
2	absorb			rainfall					nom absorption «process transitive»: of=patient

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/e4/