Exam question 2 · Fossils: how a living thing turns to stone and how we dig…
Which of the following is correctly classified as a trace fossil?
Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, classify
This is exam question 2 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 | Which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 7 classified | obj |
| 2 | of | of | SCONJ | _ | 7 classified | mark |
| 3 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 4 following | det |
| 4 | following | follow | VERB | Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part | 7 classified | nsubj:pass |
| 5 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 7 classified | aux:pass |
| 6 | correctly | correctly | ADV | _ | 7 classified | advmod |
| 7 | classified | classify | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 8 | as | as | ADP | _ | 11 fossil | case |
| 9 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 11 fossil | det |
| 10 | trace | trace | NOUN | Number=Sing | 11 fossil | compound |
| 11 | fossil | fossil | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 classified | obl |
| 12 | ? | ? | PUNCT | _ | 7 classified | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | follow | gerund | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme | ||||||
| 2 | classify | present · passive | as a trace fossil; correctly property | tree rules |
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
A mineralised thigh bone
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 4 bone | det |
| 2 | mineralised | mineralis | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 4 bone | amod |
| 3 | thigh | thigh | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 bone | compound |
| 4 | bone | bone | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | mineralis | participle | tree rules |
Option 2 · ✓ the right answer
A preserved burrow or footprint
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 burrow | det |
| 2 | preserved | preserve | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 3 burrow | amod |
| 3 | burrow | burrow | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 4 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 5 footprint | cc |
| 5 | footprint | footprint | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 burrow | conj |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | preserve | participle | vn defend-72.3 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent |
Option 3
A petrified tree trunk
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 4 trunk | det |
| 2 | petrified | petrify | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 4 trunk | amod |
| 3 | tree | tree | NOUN | Number=Sing | 4 trunk | compound |
| 4 | trunk | trunk | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | petrify | participle | vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient |
Option 4 · ← Mova's choice
An ammonite shell
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | An | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 3 shell | det |
| 2 | ammonite | ammonite | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 shell | compound |
| 3 | shell | shell | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.
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/e2/