Test 5 · The microscopic world: bacteria, good and bad

What would happen if there were no decomposers like bacteria?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: decomposers · What happens: happen, be

This is test 5 of lesson 257 «The microscopic world: bacteria, good and bad» 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

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 happen	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	6 were	mark
5	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	6 were	expl
6	were	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
7	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	8 decomposers	det
8	decomposers	decomposer	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 were	nsubj
9	like	like	ADP	_	10 bacteria	case
10	bacteria	bacterium	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 decomposers	nmod
11	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	be a condition, not said to happen	past	no decomposers like bacteria			there			vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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

Nothing would ever die

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	4 die	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 die	aux
3	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	4 die	advmod
4	die	die	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	die	would	Nothing				ever		vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

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

Dead leaves and bodies would pile up and soil would lose its nutrients

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 leaves	amod
2	leaves	leaf	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 pile	nsubj
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 bodies	cc
4	bodies	body	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 leaves	conj
5	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 pile	aux
6	pile	pile	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	up	up	ADP	_	6 pile	compound:prt
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 lose	cc
9	soil	soil	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 lose	nsubj
10	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 lose	aux
11	lose	lose	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 pile	conj
12	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	13 nutrients	nmod:poss
13	nutrients	nutrient	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 lose	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pile up	would	Dead leaves and bodies						vn spray-9.7-1-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme
2	lose	would	soil	soil's nutrients					vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nutrient=Eventuality

Option 3

Plants would grow much faster, with no bacteria about to steal their food

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Plants	plant	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 grow	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 grow	aux
3	grow	grow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	much	much	ADV	_	5 faster	advmod
5	faster	fast	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 grow	xcomp
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 bacteria	punct
7	with	with	ADP	_	9 bacteria	case
8	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	9 bacteria	det
9	bacteria	bacteria	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 grow	obl
10	about	about	SCONJ	_	12 steal	mark
11	to	to	PART	_	12 steal	mark
12	steal	steal	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 bacteria	acl
13	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 food	nmod:poss
14	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 steal	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	would	Plants					with no bacteria; fast property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	steal	to-infinitive	Plants not said here	Plants's food					vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location food=Theme

Option 4

The air would fill with oxygen

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 air	det
2	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 fill	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 fill	aux
4	fill	fill	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	with	with	ADP	_	6 oxygen	case
6	oxygen	oxygen	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 fill	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fill	would	the air					with oxygen	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with oxygen=Instrument

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/257-the-microscopic-world-bacteria-good-and-bad/t5/