Exam question 3 · Masters of camouflage

Ascertain the consequence for moths of the darkening of tree bark by industrial soot.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, darken · To what, where: consequence, tree bark

This is exam question 3 of lesson 189 «Masters of camouflage» 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 consequence	det
3	consequence	consequence	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 moths	case
5	moths	moth	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Ascertain	obl
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 darkening	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 darkening	det
8	darkening	darkening	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 moths	nmod
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 bark	case
10	tree	tree	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 bark	compound
11	bark	bark	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 darkening	nmod
12	by	by	ADP	_	14 soot	case
13	industrial	industrial	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 soot	amod
14	soot	soot	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obl
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the consequence				for moths of the darkening of tree bark; by industrial soot	vn ensure-99 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Precondition consequence=Theme for moth=Beneficiary
2	darken			tree bark					nom darkening «act transitive»: of=patient

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

All moths perished without distinction

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	All	all	DET	PronType=Tot	2 moths	det
2	moths	moth	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 perished	nsubj
3	perished	perish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	without	without	ADP	_	5 distinction	case
5	distinction	distinction	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 perished	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	perish	past	all moths					without distinction	vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Dark moths survived in greater numbers than pale ones

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Dark	dark	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 moths	amod
2	moths	moth	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 survived	nsubj
3	survived	survive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 numbers	case
5	greater	great	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	6 numbers	amod
6	numbers	number	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 survived	obl
7	than	than	ADP	_	9 ones	case
8	pale	pale	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 ones	amod
9	ones	one	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 survived	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	survive	past	Dark moths			greater numbers		than pale ones	vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in number=Location

Option 3

Pale moths survived in greater numbers on the darkened trees

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Pale	pale	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 moths	amod
2	moths	moth	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 survived	nsubj
3	survived	survive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 numbers	case
5	greater	great	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	6 numbers	amod
6	numbers	number	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 survived	obl
7	on	on	ADP	_	10 trees	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 trees	det
9	darkened	darken	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 trees	amod
10	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 survived	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	survive	past	Pale moths			greater numbers		on the darkened trees	vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in number=Location
2	darken	participle							vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 4

The moths were unaffected

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 moths	det
2	moths	moth	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 unaffected	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 unaffected	cop
4	unaffected	unaffected	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the moths					unaffected 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.

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