Test 10 · ★★★ · Ice Age: real woolly mammoths

A cave painting shows a mammoth with a hump and a sloping back. Why does this matter to scientists?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: cave painting, this · What happens: show, slope back, matter · To what, where: mammoth

This is test 10 · ★★★ of lesson 130 «Ice Age: real woolly mammoths» 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

Sentence 1: A cave painting shows a mammoth with a hump and a sloping back.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 painting	det
2	cave	cave	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 painting	compound
3	painting	painting	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 shows	nsubj
4	shows	show	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 mammoth	det
6	mammoth	mammoth	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 shows	obj
7	with	with	ADP	_	9 hump	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 hump	det
9	hump	hump	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 mammoth	nmod
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 sloping	cc
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 sloping	det
12	sloping	slope	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	6 mammoth	conj
13	back	back	ADV	_	12 sloping	advmod
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	4 shows	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	show	present	a cave painting	a mammoth				with a hump	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent mammoth=Recipient
2	slope back	gerund	a cave painting not said here						vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=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.

Sentence 2: Why does this matter to scientists?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	4 matter	advmod
2	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 matter	aux
3	this	this	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	4 matter	nsubj
4	matter	matter	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	to	to	ADP	_	6 scientists	case
6	scientists	scientist	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 matter	obl
7	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 matter	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	matter	present · do-support	this					to scientists	vn matter-91 «NP V PP.experiencer»: agent=Stimulus to scientist=Experiencer

The options

Option 1

It shows mammoths lived in France today

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 shows	nsubj
2	shows	show	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	mammoths	mammoth	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 lived	nsubj
4	lived	live	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 shows	ccomp
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 France	case
6	France	France	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 lived	obl
7	today	today	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 shows	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	show	present	It				today		vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	live	past	mammoths			France			vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in france=Location

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

It matches frozen mammoths found later, so the painters drew from life

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 matches	nsubj
2	matches	match	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	frozen	freeze	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 mammoths	amod
4	mammoths	mammoth	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 matches	obj
5	found	find	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 mammoths	acl
6	later	late	ADV	Degree=Cmp	5 found	advmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 drew	punct
8	so	so	ADV	_	11 drew	advmod
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 painters	det
10	painters	painter	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 drew	nsubj
11	drew	draw	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 matches	parataxis
12	from	from	ADP	_	13 life	case
13	life	life	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 drew	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	match	present	It	frozen mammoths		vn amalgamate-22.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mammoth=Patient
2	freeze	participle				vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
3	find	participle		frozen mammoths not said here	late property	vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent
4	draw	past	the painters		from life	vn split-23.2 «NP V PP.co-patient»: agent=Patient from life=Co-Patient

Option 3

It proves that mammoths were pink and that the hump was only a painted shadow

The tree, 15 words

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 proves	nsubj
2	proves	prove	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	6 pink	mark
4	mammoths	mammoth	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 pink	nsubj
5	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 pink	cop
6	pink	pink	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 proves	ccomp
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	15 shadow	cc
8	that	that	SCONJ	_	15 shadow	mark
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 hump	det
10	hump	hump	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 shadow	nsubj
11	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	15 shadow	cop
12	only	only	ADV	_	15 shadow	advmod
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 shadow	det
14	painted	paint	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	15 shadow	amod
15	shadow	shadow	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 pink	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	prove	present	It			vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent
2	is	past	mammoths		pink property	tree rules
3	paint	participle				vn image_impression-25.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
4	is a	past	the hump	a painted shadow		tree rules

Option 4

It shows mammoths had no tusks

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 shows	nsubj
2	shows	show	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	mammoths	mammoth	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 had	nsubj
4	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 shows	ccomp
5	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	6 tusks	det
6	tusks	tusk	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 had	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	show	present	It						vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	have	past	mammoths	no tusks					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tusk=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.

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