Test 6 · ★★ · The Galápagos: giant tortoises, sea iguanas, Darwin's finc…

«Darwin saw a finch turn into another bird overnight» What is right?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: Darwin · What happens: see, turn, be · To what, where: finch · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 6 · ★★ of lesson 180 «The Galápagos: giant tortoises, sea iguanas, Darwin's finches and tame sea lions» 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	«	«	PUNCT	_	3 saw	punct
2	Darwin	Darwin	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 saw	nsubj
3	saw	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 finch	det
5	finch	finch	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 saw	obj
6	turn	turn	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 finch	acl
7	into	into	ADP	_	9 bird	case
8	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	9 bird	det
9	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 turn	obl
10	overnight	overnight	ADV	_	3 saw	advmod
11	»	»	PUNCT	_	3 saw	punct
12	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	14 right	nsubj
13	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 right	cop
14	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 saw	ccomp
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 saw	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	see in a quote	past	Darwin	a finch	overnight property	vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer finch=Stimulus
2	turn in a quote	participle		a finch not said here	into another bird result	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme into bird=Result
3	is	present			right property	tree rules

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

Darwin never saw any finches

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Darwin	Darwin	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 saw	nsubj
2	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	3 saw	advmod
3	saw	see	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	5 finches	det
5	finches	finch	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 saw	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not see	past	Darwin	any finches					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer finch=Stimulus

Option 2

Right, it took one night

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Right	right	INTJ	_	4 took	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Right	punct
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 took	nsubj
4	took	take	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 night	nummod
6	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 took	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	take	past	it				night		vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Finches never change at all

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Finches	finch	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 change	nsubj
2	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	3 change	advmod
3	change	change	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	at	at	ADP	_	5 all	case
5	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	3 change	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not change	present	Finches			all			vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Changes happen over many generations, though beaks can shift within a few years

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Changes	change	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 happen	nsubj
2	happen	happen	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	over	over	ADP	_	5 generations	case
4	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 generations	amod
5	generations	generation	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 happen	obl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 shift	punct
7	though	though	SCONJ	_	10 shift	mark
8	beaks	beak	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 shift	nsubj
9	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 shift	aux
10	shift	shift	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 happen	conj
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 shift	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	present	Changes				over many generations		vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme over generation=Location
2	shift	can	beaks				year		vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=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/180-the-galapagos-giant-tortoises-sea-iguanas-darwins-finches-and-tame-sea-lions/t6/