Exam question 1 · Terror birds, moas, giant insects and other lost giants

Identify the factor understood to have permitted the attainment of great size by certain insects some three hundred million years ago.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, factor · What happens: identify, understand, permit, attain · To what, where: attainment, great size

This is exam question 1 of lesson 274 «Terror birds, moas, giant insects and other lost giants» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 factor	det
3	factor	factor	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 understood	nsubj
4	understood	understand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 Identify	ccomp
5	to	to	PART	_	7 permitted	mark
6	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 permitted	aux
7	permitted	permit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	4 understood	xcomp
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 attainment	det
9	attainment	attainment	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 permitted	obj
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 size	case
11	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 size	amod
12	size	size	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 attainment	nmod
13	by	by	ADP	_	15 insects	case
14	certain	certain	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 insects	amod
15	insects	insect	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 permitted	obl
16	some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	20 years	det
17	three	three	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	18 hundred	compound
18	hundred	hundred	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	19 million	compound
19	million	million	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	20 years	nummod
20	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	21 ago	obl:unmarked
21	ago	ago	ADV	_	15 insects	advmod
22	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	understand	past	the factor			vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V how S_INF»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus
3	permit	to-infinitive · perfect	the factor not said here	the attainment of great size	by certain insects	vn admit-64.3-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent attainment=Theme by insect=Location
4	attain			great size		nom attainment «act transitive»: of=patient

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 · ✓ the right answer

A higher concentration of oxygen within the atmosphere

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 concentration	det
2	higher	high	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 concentration	amod
3	concentration	concentration	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 oxygen	case
5	oxygen	oxygen	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 concentration	nmod
6	within	within	ADP	_	8 atmosphere	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 atmosphere	det
8	atmosphere	atmosphere	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 concentration	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2

The coldness of the climate

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 coldness	det
2	coldness	coldness	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 climate	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 climate	det
5	climate	climate	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 coldness	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

The complete absence of sunlight during the Carboniferous

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 absence	det
2	complete	complete	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 absence	amod
3	absence	absence	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 sunlight	case
5	sunlight	sunlight	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 absence	nmod
6	during	during	ADP	_	8 Carboniferous	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Carboniferous	det
8	Carboniferous	Carboniferous	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 absence	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	absent			sunlight			during the Carboniferous		nom absence «state transitive»: of=patient during=obl

Option 4

A diet consisting of dinosaurs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 diet	det
2	diet	diet	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	consisting	consist	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	2 diet	acl
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 dinosaurs	case
5	dinosaurs	dinosaur	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 consisting	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	consist	gerund	a diet not said here					of dinosaurs	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/274-terror-birds-moas-giant-insects-and-lost-giants/e1/