Test 9 · ★ · Feathered dinosaurs: from Archaeopteryx to the chicken on…

After the asteroid the forests burned. Why did small seed-eating birds have a better chance?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: forests, small eating birds · What happens: burn, eat, have · To what, where: better chance

This is test 9 · ★ of lesson 269 «Feathered dinosaurs: from Archaeopteryx to the chicken on your plate» 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: After the asteroid the forests burned.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	After	after	ADP	_	3 asteroid	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 asteroid	det
3	asteroid	asteroid	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 burned	obl
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 forests	det
5	forests	forest	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 burned	nsubj
6	burned	burn	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	.	.	PUNCT	_	6 burned	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	burn	past	the forests				after the asteroid		vn light_emission-43.1 «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.

Sentence 2: Why did small seed-eating birds have a better chance?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	8 have	advmod
2	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 have	aux
3	small	small	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 birds	amod
4	seed	seed	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 eating	compound
5	-	-	PUNCT	_	4 seed	punct
6	eating	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 birds	amod
7	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 have	nsubj
8	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 chance	det
10	better	good	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	11 chance	amod
11	chance	chance	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 have	obj
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 have	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat	gerund							vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	have	past · do-support	small eating birds	a better chance					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chance=Patient

The options

Option 1

They could fly up high above the fire and smoke for weeks on end

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 fly	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 fly	aux
3	fly	fly	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	up	up	ADP	_	3 fly	compound:prt
5	high	high	ADV	Degree=Pos	3 fly	advmod
6	above	above	ADP	_	8 fire	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 fire	det
8	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 fly	obl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 smoke	cc
10	smoke	smoke	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 fire	conj
11	for	for	ADP	_	12 weeks	case
12	weeks	week	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 fly	obl
13	on	on	ADP	_	14 end	case
14	end	end	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 fly	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fly up	could	They			the fire and smoke	on end; week	high property	vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme above fire=Location

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Seeds lasted in the ground and they could live without trees

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Seeds	seed	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 lasted	nsubj
2	lasted	last	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 ground	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 ground	det
5	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 lasted	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 live	cc
7	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 live	nsubj
8	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	9 live	aux
9	live	live	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 lasted	conj
10	without	without	ADP	_	11 trees	case
11	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 live	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	last	past	Seeds			the ground			vn cost-54.2 «NP V NP.value»: agent=Theme
2	live	could	Seeds = seed					without trees	vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

They were too big and strong for the heat to harm 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	4 big	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 big	cop
3	too	too	ADV	_	4 big	advmod
4	big	big	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 strong	cc
6	strong	strong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 big	conj
7	for	for	ADP	_	9 heat	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 heat	det
9	heat	heat	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 big	obl
10	to	to	PART	_	11 harm	mark
11	harm	harm	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 big	advcl
12	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 harm	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is	past	They		for the heat; big property	tree rules
2	be		They not said here			tree rules
3	harm	to-infinitive	They not said here	them = they		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus they=Experiencer

Option 4

They ate the burning wood and the ash that fell from it

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	5 wood	det
4	burning	burn	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 wood	amod
5	wood	wood	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 ate	obj
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 ash	cc
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 ash	det
8	ash	ash	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 wood	conj
9	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 fell	nsubj
10	fell	fall	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 ash	acl:relcl
11	from	from	ADP	_	12 it	case
12	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 fell	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	eat	past	They	the burning wood and the ash		vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent wood=Patient
2	burn	gerund				vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	fall	past	the ash		ash	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme from it=Initial_Location

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/269-feathered-dinosaurs-archaeopteryx-to-chicken/t9/