Exam question 4 · Plants deeper: do trees talk? Fungi, warning smells and gi…

Ascertain the reason for which a stand of aspen trees may be regarded as a single organism.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, regard · To what, where: reason, stand

This is exam question 4 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	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	13 regarded	obl
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 stand	det
7	stand	stand	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 regarded	nsubj:pass
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 trees	case
9	aspen	aspen	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 trees	compound
10	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 stand	nmod
11	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 regarded	aux
12	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	13 regarded	aux:pass
13	regarded	regard	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 reason	acl:relcl
14	as	as	ADP	_	17 organism	case
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 organism	det
16	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 organism	amod
17	organism	organism	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 regarded	obl
18	.	.	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 reason					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	regard	may · passive		a stand of aspen trees				for the reason; as a single organism	vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Theme for which=Attribute

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 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

The trunks arise from a single connected root system and share identical genes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 trunks	det
2	trunks	trunk	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 arise	nsubj
3	arise	arise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	from	from	ADP	_	9 system	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 system	det
6	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 system	amod
7	connected	connect	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 system	amod
8	root	root	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 system	compound
9	system	system	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 arise	obl
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 share	cc
11	share	share	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 arise	conj
12	identical	identical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 genes	amod
13	genes	gene	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 share	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	arise	present	the trunks		a single connected root system	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	connect	participle				vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Patient
3	share	present	the trunks not said here	identical genes		tree rules

Option 2

The trunks were planted on the same day by a single forester, from one bag of seed

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 trunks	det
2	trunks	trunk	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 planted	nsubj:pass
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 planted	aux:pass
4	planted	plant	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	on	on	ADP	_	8 day	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 day	det
7	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 day	amod
8	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 planted	obl
9	by	by	ADP	_	12 forester	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 forester	det
11	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 forester	amod
12	forester	forester	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 planted	obl
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 bag	punct
14	from	from	ADP	_	16 bag	case
15	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	16 bag	nummod
16	bag	bag	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 planted	obl
17	of	of	ADP	_	18 seed	case
18	seed	seed	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 bag	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	plant	past · passive	a single forester	the trunks		one bag of seed	day		vn establish-55.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient

Option 3

The trunks are all of identical height

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 trunks	det
2	trunks	trunk	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 all	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 all	cop
4	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 height	case
6	identical	identical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 height	amod
7	height	height	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 all	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

The trunks are joined by their branches above ground

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 trunks	det
2	trunks	trunk	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 joined	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 joined	aux:pass
4	joined	join	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 branches	case
6	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 branches	nmod:poss
7	branches	branch	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 joined	obl
8	above	above	ADV	_	4 joined	advmod
9	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 joined	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	join	present · passive	trunks's branches	the trunks				ground obl; above property	vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=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.

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