Test 11 · The microscopic world: tardigrades, mites, plankton and ot…

How could rotifers survive about 24,000 years in ice?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: rotifers · What happens: survive · To what, where: ice

This is test 11 of lesson 259 «The microscopic world: tardigrades, mites, plankton and other tiny creatures» 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	How	how	ADV	PronType=Int	4 survive	advmod
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 survive	aux
3	rotifers	rotifer	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 survive	nsubj
4	survive	survive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	about	about	ADV	_	6 24,000	advmod
6	24,000	24000	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	7 years	nummod
7	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 survive	obl:unmarked
8	in	in	ADP	_	9 ice	case
9	ice	ice	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 survive	obl
10	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 survive	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	survive	could	rotifers			ice	year		vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in ice=Location

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

They kept warm by swimming

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 kept	nsubj
2	kept	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	warm	warm	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 kept	xcomp
4	by	by	SCONJ	_	5 swimming	mark
5	swimming	swim	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 kept	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	past	They					warm property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	swim	gerund	They not said here						vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

They ate the ice slowly, a little bit at a time, to stay alive

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 ate	nsubj
2	ate	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 ice	det
4	ice	ice	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 ate	obj
5	slowly	slowly	ADV	_	2 ate	advmod
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 bit	punct
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 bit	det
8	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 bit	amod
9	bit	bit	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 ate	obl:unmarked
10	at	at	ADP	_	12 time	case
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 time	det
12	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 bit	nmod
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 stay	punct
14	to	to	PART	_	15 stay	mark
15	stay	stay	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	2 ate	conj
16	alive	alive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 stay	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat	past	They	the ice				a little bit at a time obl:unmarked; slowly property	vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ice=Patient
2	stay	to-infinitive	They not said here					alive property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Frozen, they stopped nearly all life processes until they thawed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Frozen	Frozen	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 stopped	nsubj
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Frozen	punct
3	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 stopped	nsubj
4	stopped	stop	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	nearly	nearly	ADV	_	4 stopped	advmod
6	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 life	det
7	life	life	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 processes	nsubj
8	processes	process	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 stopped	parataxis
9	until	until	SCONJ	_	11 thawed	mark
10	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 thawed	nsubj
11	thawed	thaw	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 processes	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	stop	past	Frozen	nearly property	vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality
2	process	present	all life		tree rules
3	thaw	past	they		vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 4

They were born just before scientists found them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 born	nsubj:pass
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 born	aux:pass
3	born	bear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	just	just	ADV	_	3 born	advmod
5	before	before	SCONJ	_	7 found	mark
6	scientists	scientist	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 found	nsubj
7	found	find	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 born	advcl
8	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 found	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	bear	past · passive		They					vn birth-28.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
2	find	past	scientists	them = they					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Topic

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/259-the-microscopic-world-tardigrades-mites-plankton-and-other-tiny-creatures/t11/