Exam question 4 · Classifying unusual animals

Identify the principal reason for which a starfish is not classified as a fish.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, not classify · To what, where: principal reason, starfish

This is exam question 4 of lesson 29 «Classifying unusual animals» 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	11 classified	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 starfish	det
8	starfish	starfish	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 classified	nsubj:pass
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 classified	aux:pass
10	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	11 classified	advmod
11	classified	classify	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl:relcl
12	as	as	ADP	_	14 fish	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 fish	det
14	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 classified	obl
15	.	.	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	not classify	present · passive		a starfish				for the principal reason; as a fish	vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP S_ING»: subject=Theme as fish=Attribute

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

It is unable to swim

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 unable	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 unable	cop
3	unable	unable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 swim	mark
5	swim	swim	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 unable	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	It					unable property	tree rules
2	swim	to-infinitive							vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

It dwells upon the seabed

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 dwells	nsubj
2	dwells	dwell	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	upon	upon	ADP	_	5 seabed	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 seabed	det
5	seabed	seabed	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 dwells	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dwell	present	It			the seabed			vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon seabed=Location

Option 3

It possesses no colour

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 possesses	nsubj
2	possesses	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 colour	det
4	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 possesses	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	It	no colour					vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot colour=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

It possesses no backbone

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 possesses	nsubj
2	possesses	possess	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 backbone	det
4	backbone	backbone	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 possesses	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	possess	present	It	no backbone					vn own-100.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot backbone=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/29-classifying-unusual-animals/e4/