Exam question 2 · Plants deeper: roots and how they drink, hold and push

Identify the principal advantage conferred upon a plant by its root hairs.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, confer · To what, where: principal advantage

This is exam question 2 of lesson 250 «Plants deeper: roots and how they drink, hold and push» 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 advantage	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 advantage	amod
4	advantage	advantage	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	conferred	confer	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 advantage	acl
6	upon	upon	ADP	_	8 plant	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 plant	det
8	plant	plant	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 conferred	obl
9	by	by	ADP	_	12 hairs	case
10	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 hairs	nmod:poss
11	root	root	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 hairs	compound
12	hairs	hair	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 conferred	obl
13	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal advantage					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent advantage=Theme
2	confer	participle		the principal advantage not said here				upon a plant; by plant's root hairs	vn chit_chat-37.6 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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

A greatly enlarged surface for the absorption of water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 surface	det
2	greatly	greatly	ADV	_	3 enlarged	advmod
3	enlarged	enlarged	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 surface	amod
4	surface	surface	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	for	for	ADP	_	7 absorption	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 absorption	det
7	absorption	absorption	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 surface	nmod
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 water	case
9	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 absorption	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	absorb			water					nom absorption «process transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

The production of seeds beneath the soil

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 production	det
2	production	production	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 seeds	case
4	seeds	seed	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 production	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 seeds	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	produce			seeds beneath the soil					nom production «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

The conduction of sunlight to the root tip

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 conduction	det
2	conduction	conduction	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 sunlight	case
4	sunlight	sunlight	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 conduction	nmod
5	to	to	ADP	_	8 tip	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 tip	det
7	root	root	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 tip	compound
8	tip	tip	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 conduction	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	conduct			sunlight				to the root tip	nom conduction «phenomenon transitive»: of=patient to=obl

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

Protection of the root against burrowing animals

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Protection	protection	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	of	of	ADP	_	4 root	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 root	det
4	root	root	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Protection	nmod
5	against	against	SCONJ	_	6 burrowing	mark
6	burrowing	burrow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	4 root	acl
7	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 burrowing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	burrow	gerund	the root not said here	animals					tree rules
2	protect			the root					nom protection «act transitive»: of=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/250-plants-deeper-roots-and-how-they-drink-hold-and-push/e2/