Exam question 3 · Tyrannosaurus rex: what we really know, from teeth and dun…

Ascertain the nature of a coprolite, as the term is employed in palaeontology.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, employ · To what, where: nature, term, palaeontology

This is exam question 3 of lesson 265 «Tyrannosaurus rex: what we really know, from teeth and dung to tiny arms» 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 nature	det
3	nature	nature	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 coprolite	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 coprolite	det
6	coprolite	coprolite	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 nature	nmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 employed	punct
8	as	as	SCONJ	_	12 employed	mark
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 term	det
10	term	term	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 employed	nsubj:pass
11	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 employed	aux:pass
12	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Ascertain	parataxis
13	in	in	ADP	_	14 palaeontology	case
14	palaeontology	palaeontology	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 employed	obl
15	.	.	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 nature of a coprolite					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nature=Topic
2	employ	present · passive		the term		palaeontology			vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: subject=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 · ← Mova's choice

A fossilised tooth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 tooth	det
2	fossilised	fossilis	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 tooth	amod
3	tooth	tooth	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fossilis	participle							tree rules

Option 2

A fossilised egg

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 egg	det
2	fossilised	fossilis	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 egg	amod
3	egg	egg	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fossilis	participle							tree rules

Option 3

A fossilised footprint

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 footprint	det
2	fossilised	fossilis	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 footprint	amod
3	footprint	footprint	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fossilis	participle							tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Fossilised dung

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fossilised	fossilis	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 dung	amod
2	dung	dung	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fossilis	participle							tree rules

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/265-tyrannosaurus-rex-teeth-dung-and-tiny-arms/e3/