Test 11 · ★★ · Record-breakers: the biggest and the smallest

What would happen to a sequoia's seeds if there were never any forest fires?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: forest fires · What happens: happen, be

This is test 11 · ★★ of lesson 186 «Record-breakers: the biggest and the smallest» 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	to	to	ADP	_	8 seeds	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 sequoia	det
6	sequoia	sequoia	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 seeds	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 sequoia	case
8	seeds	seed	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 happen	obl
9	if	if	SCONJ	_	11 were	mark
10	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	11 were	expl
11	were	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
12	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	15 fires	advmod
13	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	15 fires	det
14	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 fires	compound
15	fires	fire	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 were	nsubj
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would						to a sequoia's seeds	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	be a condition, not said to happen	past	any forest fires			there			vn exist-47.1 «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 · ✓ the right answer

Many cones would stay closed and fewer seeds would be released

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 cones	amod
2	cones	cone	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 stay	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 stay	aux
4	stay	stay	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	closed	close	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 stay	xcomp
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 released	cc
7	fewer	few	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	8 seeds	amod
8	seeds	seed	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 released	nsubj:pass
9	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 released	aux
10	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	11 released	aux:pass
11	released	release	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 closed	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	stay	would	Many cones		tree rules
2	close	participle	Many cones not said here		vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
3	release	would · passive		fewer seeds	vn free-10.6.3-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: subject=Source

Option 2

Nothing, cones never open

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	3 cones	compound
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Nothing	punct
3	cones	cone	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 open	nsubj
4	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	5 open	advmod
5	open	open	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not open	present	Nothing cones						vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

The tree would grow twice as fast

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 tree	det
2	tree	tree	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 grow	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 grow	aux
4	grow	grow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	twice	twice	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	4 grow	advmod
6	as	as	ADV	_	7 fast	advmod
7	fast	fast	ADV	Degree=Pos	4 grow	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	would	the tree					fast, twice property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

The cones would open in snow instead

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cones	det
2	cones	cone	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 open	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 open	aux
4	open	open	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 snow	case
6	snow	snow	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 open	obl
7	instead	instead	ADV	_	4 open	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	open	would	the cones			snow		instead property	vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in snow=Location

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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