Exam question 4 · Plants deeper: roots and how they drink, hold and push

Ascertain the reason for which farmers plant clover or beans in order to improve their fields.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, farmers · What happens: ascertain, plant, improve · To what, where: reason, clover, order, fields

This is exam question 4 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 plant	obl
6	farmers	farmer	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 plant	nsubj
7	plant	plant	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	acl:relcl
8	clover	clover	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 plant	obj
9	or	or	CCONJ	_	10 beans	cc
10	beans	bean	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 clover	conj
11	in	in	ADP	_	12 order	case
12	order	order	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 plant	obl
13	to	to	PART	_	14 improve	mark
14	improve	improve	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 plant	advcl
15	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	16 fields	nmod:poss
16	fields	field	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 improve	obj
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the reason			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	plant	present	farmers	clover or beans	order	for the reason	vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent clover=Theme in order=Destination
3	improve	to-infinitive	farmers not said here	farmers's fields			vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent field=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

The plants draw all the stones out of the soil

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 plants	det
2	plants	plant	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 draw	nsubj
3	draw	draw	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	6 stones	det:predet
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 stones	det
6	stones	stone	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 draw	obj
7	out	out	ADP	_	10 soil	case
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 soil	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 soil	det
10	soil	soil	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 draw	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	draw	present	the plants	all stones		the soil			vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP PP.initial_location»: agent=Agent stone=Theme out soil=Initial_Location

Option 2

The leaves poison the weeds of the following year, so that the field remains clear of them

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 leaves	det
2	leaves	leaf	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 poison	nsubj
3	poison	poison	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 weeds	det
5	weeds	weed	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 poison	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	9 year	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 year	det
8	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	9 year	amod
9	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 weeds	nmod
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 remains	punct
11	so	so	SCONJ	ExtPos=SCONJ	15 remains	mark
12	that	that	SCONJ	_	11 so	fixed
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 field	det
14	field	field	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 remains	nsubj
15	remains	remain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 poison	conj
16	clear	clear	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 remains	xcomp
17	of	of	ADP	_	18 them	case
18	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 clear	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	poison	present	the leaves	the weeds of the following year		vn poison-42.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent weed=Patient
2	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	remain	present	the field		clear property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

The roots render the soil impervious to rain

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 roots	det
2	roots	root	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 render	nsubj
3	render	render	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 soil	det
5	soil	soil	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 render	obj
6	impervious	impervious	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 rain	amod
7	to	to	PART	_	8 rain	mark
8	rain	rain	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 render	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	render	present	the roots	the soil				impervious rain obl	vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent soil=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Bacteria in the root nodules furnish the soil with nitrogen drawn from the air

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Bacteria	bacterium	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 furnish	nsubj
2	in	in	ADP	_	5 nodules	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 nodules	det
4	root	root	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 nodules	compound
5	nodules	nodule	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Bacteria	nmod
6	furnish	furnish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 soil	det
8	soil	soil	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 furnish	obj
9	with	with	ADP	_	10 nitrogen	case
10	nitrogen	nitrogen	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 furnish	obl
11	drawn	draw	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 nitrogen	acl
12	from	from	ADP	_	14 air	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 air	det
14	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 drawn	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	furnish	present	Bacteria in the root nodules	the soil				with nitrogen	vn fulfilling-13.4.1-1 «NP V NP-Fulfilling PP.theme»: agent=Agent soil=Recipient with nitrogen=Theme
2	draw	participle		nitrogen not said here				from the air	vn split-23.2 «NP V PP.co-patient»: agent=Patient from air=Co-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/e4/