Test 1 · Plants deeper: the oldest, tallest and strangest trees

In a film a talking willow tree says she is four hundred years old. Can trees really be that old?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: willow tree, tree, trees · What happens: say, be · To what, where: film · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 1 of lesson 253 «Plants deeper: the oldest, tallest and strangest trees» of the biology course of Mova's primary school. 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

Sentence 1: In a film a talking willow tree says she is four hundred years old.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	In	in	ADP	_	3 film	case
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 film	det
3	film	film	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 says	obl
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 tree	det
5	talking	talking	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 willow	compound
6	willow	willow	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 tree	compound
7	tree	tree	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 says	nsubj
8	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	she	she	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Fem Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 old	nsubj
10	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 old	cop
11	four	four	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	12 hundred	compound
12	hundred	hundred	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	13 years	nummod
13	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 old	obl:unmarked
14	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 says	ccomp
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	8 says	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	a willow tree			a film			vn pronounce-29.3.1 «NP V NP PP.manner»: agent=Agent in film=Manner
2	is	present	tree				year	old 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.

Sentence 2: Can trees really be that old?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 old	aux
2	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 old	nsubj
3	really	really	ADV	_	6 old	advmod
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 old	cop
5	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	6 old	advmod
6	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
7	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 old	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	can	trees					old property	tree rules

The options

Option 1 · ✓ the right answer

Yes, and some, like bristlecone pines, are nearly 5,000 years old

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	14 old	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Yes	punct
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 old	cc
4	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	14 old	nsubj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 some	punct
6	like	like	ADP	_	8 pines	case
7	bristlecone	bristlecone	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 pines	compound
8	pines	pine	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 some	nmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 some	punct
10	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 old	cop
11	nearly	nearly	ADV	_	12 5,000	advmod
12	5,000	5000	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	13 years	nummod
13	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 old	obl:unmarked
14	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	some				year	old property	tree rules

Option 2

No, no tree anywhere on Earth lives for more than about 100 years at most

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	INTJ	Polarity=Neg	4 tree	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 tree	punct
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 tree	det
4	tree	tree	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 lives	nsubj
5	anywhere	anywhere	ADV	PronType=Ind	4 tree	advmod
6	on	on	ADP	_	7 Earth	case
7	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 tree	nmod
8	lives	live	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	for	for	ADP	_	14 years	case
10	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp ExtPos=ADV	13 100	advmod
11	than	than	ADP	_	10 more	fixed
12	about	about	ADV	_	13 100	advmod
13	100	100	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	14 years	nummod
14	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 lives	obl
15	at	at	ADP	_	16 most	case
16	most	most	ADJ	Degree=Sup	8 lives	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	live	present	no tree on Earth			most	year		vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at most=Location

Option 3

Yes, but only willows

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	5 willows	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Yes	punct
3	but	but	CCONJ	_	5 willows	cc
4	only	only	ADV	_	5 willows	advmod
5	willows	willow	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root

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

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

No, trees die after 40 years

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	INTJ	Polarity=Neg	4 die	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 die	punct
3	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 die	nsubj
4	die	die	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	after	after	ADP	_	7 years	case
6	40	40	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	7 years	nummod
7	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 die	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	die	present	trees				year		vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

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/253-plants-deeper-the-oldest-tallest-and-strangest-trees/t1/