Test 7 · The microscopic world: tardigrades, mites, plankton and ot…

Why would eggs that survive drying be useful in a salty lake?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: eggs · What happens: survive, dry, be · To what, where: salty lake

This is test 7 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	8 useful	advmod
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 useful	aux
3	eggs	egg	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 useful	nsubj
4	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 survive	nsubj
5	survive	survive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 eggs	acl:relcl
6	drying	dry	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 survive	xcomp
7	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	8 useful	cop
8	useful	useful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
9	in	in	ADP	_	12 lake	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 lake	det
11	salty	salty	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 lake	amod
12	lake	lake	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 useful	obl
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 useful	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	other	roles by
1	survive	present	eggs			tree rules
2	dry	gerund	eggs not said here			vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
3	is	would	eggs	a salty lake	useful 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

Birds cannot find the dry eggs, because they look just like grains of sand

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 find	nsubj
2	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 find	aux
3	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	4 find	advmod
4	find	find	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 eggs	det
6	dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 eggs	amod
7	eggs	egg	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 find	obj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 look	punct
9	because	because	SCONJ	_	11 look	mark
10	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 look	nsubj
11	look	look	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 find	conj
12	just	just	ADV	_	14 grains	advmod
13	like	like	ADP	_	14 grains	case
14	grains	grain	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 look	obl
15	of	of	ADP	_	16 sand	case
16	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 grains	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not find	can	Birds	the dry eggs					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent egg=Topic
2	look	present	Birds = bird					like grains of sand	vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus

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

When the lake dries up, the eggs wait and hatch when water returns

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	When	when	SCONJ	_	4 dries	mark
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 lake	det
3	lake	lake	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 dries	nsubj
4	dries	dry	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 wait	advcl
5	up	up	ADP	_	4 dries	compound:prt
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 wait	punct
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 eggs	det
8	eggs	egg	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 wait	nsubj
9	wait	wait	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 hatch	cc
11	hatch	hatch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 wait	conj
12	when	when	SCONJ	_	14 returns	mark
13	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 returns	nsubj
14	returns	return	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 wait	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	roles by
1	dry up	present	the lake	vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
2	wait	present	the eggs	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	hatch	present	the eggs not said here	vn grow-26.2.1 «NP.patient V PP.product»: agent=Patient
4	return	present	water	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

Dry eggs are too salty for birds

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 eggs	amod
2	eggs	egg	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 salty	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 salty	cop
4	too	too	ADV	_	5 salty	advmod
5	salty	salty	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	for	for	ADP	_	7 birds	case
7	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 salty	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Dry eggs					for birds; salty property	tree rules

Option 4

Dry eggs float better in salt

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 eggs	amod
2	eggs	egg	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 float	nsubj
3	float	float	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	better	well	ADV	Degree=Cmp	3 float	advmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 salt	case
6	salt	salt	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 float	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	float	present	Dry eggs			salt		well property	vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in salt=Trajectory

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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