Test 4 · Mammoths and the Ice Age giants: sabre-tooths, ground slot…

What would happen if a deer walked into a tar pit at La Brea?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: deer · What happens: happen, walk · To what, where: tar pit

This is test 4 of lesson 272 «Mammoths and the Ice Age giants: sabre-tooths, ground sloths and woolly rhinos» 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	_	7 walked	mark
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 deer	det
6	deer	deer	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 walked	nsubj
7	walked	walk	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
8	into	into	ADP	_	11 pit	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 pit	det
10	tar	tar	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 pit	compound
11	pit	pit	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 walked	obl
12	at	at	ADP	_	13 La	case
13	La	La	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 pit	nmod
14	Brea	Brea	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 La	flat
15	?	?	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	walk a condition, not said to happen	past	a deer					into a tar pit at La result	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme into pit=Result

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

It would float on top of the tar and simply walk out the other side

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 float	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 float	aux
3	float	float	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	on	on	ADP	_	5 top	case
5	top	top	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 float	obl
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 tar	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 tar	det
8	tar	tar	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 top	nmod
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 walk	cc
10	simply	simply	ADV	_	11 walk	advmod
11	walk	walk	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 float	conj
12	out	out	ADP	_	11 walk	compound:prt
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 side	det
14	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 side	amod
15	side	side	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 walk	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	float	would	It			top of the tar			vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on top=Trajectory
2	walk out	infinitive		the other side				simply property	vn resign-10.11 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

The tar would wash it clean and it would run off shining

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 tar	det
2	tar	tar	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 wash	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 wash	aux
4	wash	wash	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 wash	obj
6	clean	clean	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 wash	xcomp
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 run	cc
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 run	nsubj
9	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 run	aux
10	run	run	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 wash	conj
11	off	off	ADP	_	10 run	compound:prt
12	shining	shining	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 run	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wash	would	the tar	it				clean property	vn floss-41.2.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient
2	run off	would	tar	shining					vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial_Location shining=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

It would get stuck, and hunters coming for it might get stuck too

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 get	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 get	aux
3	get	get	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	stuck	stuck	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 get	xcomp
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 get	punct
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 get	cc
7	hunters	hunter	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 get	nsubj
8	coming	come	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 hunters	acl
9	for	for	ADP	_	10 it	case
10	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 coming	obl
11	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 get	aux
12	get	get	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 get	conj
13	stuck	stuck	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 get	xcomp
14	too	too	ADV	_	12 get	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	get	would	It	stuck property	vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer
2	come	gerund	hunters not said here	for it	vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	get	might	hunters	stuck property	vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

It would turn into stone at once and stand there like a statue

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 turn	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 turn	aux
3	turn	turn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	into	into	ADP	_	5 stone	case
5	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 turn	obl
6	at	at	ADP	_	7 once	case
7	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	3 turn	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 stand	cc
9	stand	stand	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 turn	conj
10	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	9 stand	advmod
11	like	like	ADP	_	13 statue	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 statue	det
13	statue	statue	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 stand	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	turn	would	It			stone			vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V PP.source PP.trajectory PP.destination»: agent=Theme into stone=Source at once=Trajectory
2	stand	infinitive				there		like a statue	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/272-mammoths-and-the-ice-age-giants/t4/