Exam question 2 · The Amazon forest floor: leafcutters, army ants, tapirs, j…

Identify the principal reason for which a fallen tree disappears within a few years upon the floor of the rainforest.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, fallen tree · What happens: identify, fall, disappear · To what, where: principal reason

This is exam question 2 of lesson 157 «The Amazon forest floor: leafcutters, army ants, tapirs, jaguars and the giant spider» 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	10 disappears	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 tree	det
8	fallen	fall	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 tree	amod
9	tree	tree	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 disappears	nsubj
10	disappears	disappear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl
11	within	within	ADP	_	14 years	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 years	det
13	few	few	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 years	amod
14	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 disappears	obl
15	upon	upon	ADP	_	17 floor	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 floor	det
17	floor	floor	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 disappears	obl
18	of	of	ADP	_	20 rainforest	case
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 rainforest	det
20	rainforest	rainforest	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 floor	nmod
21	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	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	fall	participle					vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	disappear	present	a fallen tree		year	for the principal reason; upon the floor of the rainforest	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «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.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Decomposition by fungi, termites and bacteria proceeds rapidly in heat and moisture

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Decomposition	decomposition	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 proceeds	nsubj
2	by	by	ADP	_	3 fungi	case
3	fungi	fungus	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Decomposition	nmod
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 termites	punct
5	termites	termite	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 fungi	conj
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 bacteria	cc
7	bacteria	bacterium	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 fungi	conj
8	proceeds	proceed	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	rapidly	rapidly	ADV	_	8 proceeds	advmod
10	in	in	ADP	_	11 heat	case
11	heat	heat	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 proceeds	obl
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 moisture	cc
13	moisture	moisture	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 heat	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	proceed	present	Decomposition by fungi and termites and bacteria			heat and moisture		rapidly property	vn begin-55.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent
2	decompose		fungi and termites and bacteria						nom decomposition «cognition transitive»: by=agent

Option 2

Submersion of the material beneath the soil by its own weight over a great many years

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Submersion	Submersion	PROPN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	of	of	ADP	_	4 material	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 material	det
4	material	material	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Submersion	nmod
5	beneath	beneath	ADP	_	7 soil	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 soil	det
7	soil	soil	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 material	nmod
8	by	by	ADP	_	11 weight	case
9	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 weight	nmod:poss
10	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 weight	amod
11	weight	weight	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Submersion	nmod
12	over	over	ADP	_	16 years	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 years	det
14	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 years	amod
15	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 years	amod
16	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 weight	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

Consumption by jaguars

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Consumption	consumption	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	by	by	ADP	_	3 jaguars	case
3	jaguars	jaguar	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Consumption	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	consume		jaguars						nom consumption «act transitive»: by=agent

Option 4

Removal by large mammals for nesting material

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Removal	removal	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	by	by	ADP	_	4 mammals	case
3	large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 mammals	amod
4	mammals	mammal	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Removal	nmod
5	for	for	SCONJ	_	6 nesting	mark
6	nesting	nest	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 mammals	acl
7	material	material	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 nesting	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	nest	gerund	large mammals not said here	material					vn berry-13.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent material=Location
2	remove		large mammals						nom removal «act transitive»: by=agent

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/157-the-amazon-forest-floor/e2/