Test 6 · ★ · Deserts of the world: fennec foxes, fog-drinking beetles,…

What would happen if a thick fog stopped coming to the Namib Desert?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: thick fog · What happens: happen, stop, come · To what, where: Namib Desert

This is test 6 · ★ of lesson 182 «Deserts of the world: fennec foxes, fog-drinking beetles, camels and silver ants» 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 happen	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	8 stopped	mark
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 fog	det
6	thick	thick	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 fog	amod
7	fog	fog	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 stopped	nsubj
8	stopped	stop	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
9	coming	come	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 stopped	xcomp
10	to	to	ADP	_	13 Desert	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 Desert	det
12	Namib	Namib	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 Desert	compound
13	Desert	Desert	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 coming	obl
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	roles by
1	happen	would			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	stop a condition, not said to happen	past	a thick fog		vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality
3	come	gerund	a thick fog not said here	the Namib Desert	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme to desert=Initial_Location

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 beetles would start drinking from the sea

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 beetles	det
2	beetles	beetle	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 start	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 start	aux
4	start	start	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	drinking	drink	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 start	xcomp
6	from	from	ADP	_	8 sea	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 sea	det
8	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 drinking	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	start	would	the beetles						vn begin-55.1-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
2	drink	gerund	the beetles not said here			the sea			vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V PP.source»: agent=Agent from sea=Source

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Fog-drinking beetles and plants that catch fog would lose their water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fog	fog	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 drinking	compound
2	-	-	PUNCT	_	1 Fog	punct
3	drinking	drinking	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 beetles	compound
4	beetles	beetle	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 lose	nsubj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 plants	cc
6	plants	plant	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 beetles	conj
7	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 catch	nsubj
8	catch	catch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 plants	acl:relcl
9	fog	fog	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 catch	obj
10	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 lose	aux
11	lose	lose	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
12	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 water	nmod:poss
13	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 lose	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	catch	present	plants	fog					vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fog=Theme
2	lose	would	drinking beetles and plants	beetles's water					vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent water=Eventuality

Option 3

The desert would turn into a forest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 desert	det
2	desert	desert	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 turn	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 turn	aux
4	turn	turn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	into	into	ADP	_	7 forest	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 forest	det
7	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 turn	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	turn	would	the desert			a forest			vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into forest=Trajectory

Option 4

Nothing, because beetles never need water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Nothing	punct
3	because	because	SCONJ	_	6 need	mark
4	beetles	beetle	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 need	nsubj
5	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	6 need	advmod
6	need	need	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Nothing	advcl
7	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 need	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not need	present	beetles	water					vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot water=Theme

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/182-deserts-of-the-world-fennec-foxes-fog-drinking-beetles-camels-and-silver-ants/t6/