Exam question 1 · Fossils: how a living thing turns to stone and how we dig…

Identify the principal condition which renders the fossilisation of an organism more probable.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, principal condition · What happens: identify, render, fossilise · To what, where: principal condition, fossilisation, organism

This is exam question 1 of lesson 275 «Fossils: how a living thing turns to stone and how we dig it up» 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	4 condition	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 condition	amod
4	condition	condition	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 renders	nsubj
6	renders	render	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 condition	acl:relcl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 fossilisation	det
8	fossilisation	fossilisation	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 renders	obj
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 organism	case
10	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 organism	det
11	organism	organism	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 fossilisation	nmod
12	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	13 probable	advmod
13	probable	probable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 renders	xcomp
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal condition		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent condition=Theme
2	render	present	the principal condition	the fossilisation of a organism	probable property	vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fossilisation=Theme
3	fossilise			a organism		nom fossilisation «process 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

Death at an advanced age

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Death	death	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	at	at	ADP	_	5 age	case
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 age	det
4	advanced	advanced	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 age	amod
5	age	age	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Death	nmod

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

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Rapid burial in sediment, in the absence of air

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Rapid	rapid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 burial	amod
2	burial	burial	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	4 sediment	case
4	sediment	sediment	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 burial	nmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 absence	punct
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 absence	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 absence	det
8	absence	absence	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 burial	conj
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 air	case
10	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 absence	nmod

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

Option 3

Prolonged exposure to sunlight upon the surface

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Prolonged	prolong	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
2	exposure	exposure	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Prolonged	obj
3	to	to	ADP	_	4 sunlight	case
4	sunlight	sunlight	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Prolonged	obl
5	upon	upon	ADP	_	7 surface	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 surface	det
7	surface	surface	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Prolonged	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prolong	participle		exposure				to sunlight; upon the surface	vn sustain-55.6 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent exposure=Theme

Option 4

Consumption of the remains by scavengers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Consumption	consumption	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	of	of	ADP	_	4 remains	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 remains	det
4	remains	remains	NOUN	Number=Ptan	1 Consumption	nmod
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 scavengers	case
6	scavengers	scavenger	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 remains	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	consume			the remains by scavengers					nom consumption «act transitive»: of=patient

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/275-fossils-how-a-living-thing-turns-to-stone-and-how-we-dig-it-up/e1/