Test 8 · Swamps, marshes, mangroves and bogs

Why would a mangrove tree die if all its breathing roots were covered by thick mud?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: mangrove tree, thick mud · What happens: die, cover · To what, where: breathing roots

This is test 8 of lesson 11 «Swamps, marshes, mangroves and bogs» of the biology course of Mova's primary school. 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	6 die	advmod
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 die	aux
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 tree	det
4	mangrove	mangrove	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 tree	compound
5	tree	tree	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 die	nsubj
6	die	die	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	if	if	SCONJ	_	13 covered	mark
8	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	11 roots	det:predet
9	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 roots	nmod:poss
10	breathing	breathing	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 roots	compound
11	roots	root	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 covered	nsubj:pass
12	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 covered	aux:pass
13	covered	cover	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 die	advcl
14	by	by	ADP	_	16 mud	case
15	thick	thick	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 mud	amod
16	mud	mud	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 covered	obl
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 die	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	die	would	a mangrove tree						vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute
2	cover a condition, not said to happen	past · passive	thick mud	tree's breathing roots					vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme subject=Destination

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

The salt would wash out of its leaves

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 salt	det
2	salt	salt	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 wash	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 wash	aux
4	wash	wash	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	out	out	ADP	_	8 leaves	case
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 leaves	case
7	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 leaves	nmod:poss
8	leaves	leaf	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 wash	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wash out	would	the salt	salt's leaves					vn floss-41.2.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leaf=Patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

It would get far too much fresh water

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 get	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 get	aux
3	get	get	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	3 get	advmod
5	too	too	ADV	_	6 much	advmod
6	much	much	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 water	amod
7	fresh	fresh	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 water	amod
8	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 get	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	get	would	It	much fresh water				far property	vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer water=Stimulus

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Its buried roots would suffocate without air

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 roots	nmod:poss
2	buried	bury	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 roots	amod
3	roots	root	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 suffocate	nsubj
4	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 suffocate	aux
5	suffocate	suffocate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	without	without	ADP	_	7 air	case
7	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 suffocate	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	bury	participle							vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	suffocate	would	Its buried roots					without air	vn suffocate-40.7 «NP.theme V»: agent=Patient

Option 4

Fish would eat its roots

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 eat	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 eat	aux
3	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 roots	nmod:poss
5	roots	root	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 eat	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat	would	Fish	its roots					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent root=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/biology/11-swamps-marshes-mangroves-and-bogs/t8/