Exam question 2 · Ice Age: real sabre-tooths, ground sloths, glyptodonts and…

Identify the principal reason for which great numbers of predatory animals were preserved in the La Brea Tar Pits.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, preserve · To what, where: principal reason, great numbers, La Pits

This is exam question 2 of lesson 131 «Ice Age: real sabre-tooths, ground sloths, glyptodonts and dodos» of the biology 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	13 preserved	obl
7	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 numbers	amod
8	numbers	number	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 preserved	nsubj
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 animals	case
10	predatory	predatory	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 animals	amod
11	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 numbers	nmod
12	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 preserved	aux:pass
13	preserved	preserve	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl
14	in	in	ADP	_	19 Pits	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 Pits	det
16	La	La	PROPN	Number=Sing	19 Pits	compound
17	Brea	Brea	PROPN	Number=Sing	16 La	flat
18	Tar	Tar	PROPN	Number=Sing	16 La	flat
19	Pits	pit	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 preserved	obl
20	.	.	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	preserve	past · passive		great numbers of predatory animals		the La Pits		for the principal reason	vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: subject=Beneficiary

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

Predators attracted to ensnared herbivores became ensnared themselves

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Predators	predator	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 attracted	nsubj
2	attracted	attract	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	to	to	ADP	_	5 herbivores	case
4	ensnared	ensnare	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 herbivores	amod
5	herbivores	herbivore	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 ensnared	obl
6	became	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	7 ensnared	aux:pass
7	ensnared	ensnare	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 attracted	ccomp
8	themselves	themselves	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	7 ensnared	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	attract	past	Predators			tree rules
2	ensnare	participle				vn trick-59.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	ensnare	past · passive	Predators not said here	Predators = predator	to ensnared herbivores	vn trick-59.2 «NP V NP»: themselves=Patient

Option 2

Predators deliberately entered the tar in order to rest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Predators	predator	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 entered	nsubj
2	deliberately	deliberately	ADV	_	3 entered	advmod
3	entered	enter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 tar	det
5	tar	tar	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 entered	obj
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 order	case
7	order	order	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 entered	obl
8	to	to	PART	_	9 rest	mark
9	rest	rest	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 entered	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	enter	past	Predators	the tar		order		deliberately property	vn escape-51.1-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme tar=Destination
2	rest	to-infinitive	Predators not said here						vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

Predators were driven into the tar by human hunters

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Predators	predator	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 driven	nsubj:pass
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 driven	aux:pass
3	driven	drive	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	into	into	ADP	_	6 tar	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 tar	det
6	tar	tar	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 driven	obl
7	by	by	ADP	_	9 hunters	case
8	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 hunters	amod
9	hunters	hunter	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 driven	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	drive	past · passive	human hunters	Predators		the tar			vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent subject=Theme into tar=Trajectory

Option 4

The tar was consumed by predators as food during hard winters when prey was scarce

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 tar	det
2	tar	tar	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 consumed	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 consumed	aux:pass
4	consumed	consume	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 predators	case
6	predators	predator	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consumed	obl
7	as	as	ADP	_	8 food	case
8	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 consumed	obl
9	during	during	ADP	_	11 winters	case
10	hard	hard	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 winters	amod
11	winters	winter	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consumed	obl
12	when	when	SCONJ	_	15 scarce	mark
13	prey	prey	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 scarce	nsubj
14	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	15 scarce	cop
15	scarce	scarce	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 winters	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	consume	past · passive	predators	the tar			winter	as food	vn consume-66 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Asset
2	is	past	prey					scarce property	tree rules

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/131-ice-age-sabre-tooths-ground-sloths-and-scrat/e2/