Exam question 3 · Plants deeper: do trees talk? Fungi, warning smells and gi…

Identify the response of an acacia tree pursuant to its being browsed by herbivores.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, herbivores · What happens: identify, browse · To what, where: response

This is exam question 3 of lesson 252 «Plants deeper: do trees talk? Fungi, warning smells and giant clones» 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	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 tree	case
5	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 tree	det
6	acacia	acacia	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 tree	compound
7	tree	tree	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 response	nmod
8	pursuant	pursuant	ADV	_	12 browsed	advmod
9	to	to	SCONJ	_	12 browsed	mark
10	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 browsed	nmod:poss
11	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	12 browsed	aux:pass
12	browsed	browse	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Identify	advcl
13	by	by	ADP	_	14 herbivores	case
14	herbivores	herbivore	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 browsed	obl
15	.	.	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 response of a acacia tree					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	browse	gerund · passive	herbivores					pursuant property	tree rules

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

It abscises all foliage forthwith

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 abscises	nsubj
2	abscises	abscise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	4 foliage	det
4	foliage	foliage	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 abscises	obj
5	forthwith	forthwith	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 abscises	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	abscise	present	It	all foliage				forthwith property	tree rules

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

It renders its foliage more bitter and may emit a gas detected by neighbouring trees

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 renders	nsubj
2	renders	render	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 foliage	nmod:poss
4	foliage	foliage	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 renders	obj
5	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	6 bitter	advmod
6	bitter	bitter	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 renders	xcomp
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 emit	cc
8	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 emit	aux
9	emit	emit	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 renders	conj
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 gas	det
11	gas	gas	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 emit	obj
12	detected	detect	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 gas	acl
13	by	by	ADP	_	15 trees	case
14	neighbouring	neighbour	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	15 trees	amod
15	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 detected	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	render	present	It	its foliage	bitter property	vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent foliage=Theme
2	emit	may		a gas		vn substance_emission-43.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Source gas=Theme
3	detect	participle		a gas not said here	by neighbouring trees	vn see-30.1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer
4	neighbour	gerund				tree rules

Option 3

It produces additional sweet nectar to placate the herbivore and so avert further damage

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 produces	nsubj
2	produces	produce	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	additional	additional	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 nectar	amod
4	sweet	sweet	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 nectar	amod
5	nectar	nectar	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 produces	obj
6	to	to	PART	_	7 placate	mark
7	placate	placate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 produces	advcl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 herbivore	det
9	herbivore	herbivore	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 placate	obj
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 avert	cc
11	so	so	ADV	_	12 avert	advmod
12	avert	avert	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 placate	conj
13	further	further	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 damage	amod
14	damage	damage	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 avert	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	produce	present	It	additional sweet nectar	vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nectar=Result
2	placate	to-infinitive		the herbivore	vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus herbivore=Experiencer
3	avert	infinitive		further damage	tree rules

Option 4

It undergoes no alteration whatsoever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 undergoes	nsubj
2	undergoes	undergo	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 alteration	det
4	alteration	alteration	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 undergoes	obj
5	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	2 undergoes	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	undergo	present	It	no alteration				whatsoever 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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/252-plants-deeper-do-trees-talk-fungi-warning-smells-and-giant-clones/e3/