Exam question 4 · Fossils: how a living thing turns to stone and how we dig…

State the significance of the hips and knees of the specimen designated Lucy.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, significance · What happens: state, designate · To what, where: Lucy · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 4 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	State	state	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 significance	det
3	significance	significance	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 designated	nsubj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 hips	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 hips	det
6	hips	hip	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 significance	nmod
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 knees	cc
8	knees	knee	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 hips	conj
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 specimen	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 specimen	det
11	specimen	specimen	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 knees	nmod
12	designated	designate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 State	ccomp
13	Lucy	Lucy	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 designated	obj
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 State	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	state speech: other	imperative	you not said here						vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	designate	past	the significance of the hips and knees of the specimen	Lucy					vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent lucy=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.

The options

Option 1

They demonstrate that the individual lived in the sea

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 demonstrate	nsubj
2	demonstrate	demonstrate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	6 lived	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 individual	det
5	individual	individual	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 lived	nsubj
6	lived	live	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 demonstrate	ccomp
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 sea	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 sea	det
9	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 lived	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	demonstrate	present	They						vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot clause=Topic
2	live	past	the individual			the sea			vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in sea=Location

Option 2

They demonstrate that the individual could fly short distances

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 demonstrate	nsubj
2	demonstrate	demonstrate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	7 fly	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 individual	det
5	individual	individual	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 fly	nsubj
6	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 fly	aux
7	fly	fly	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 demonstrate	ccomp
8	short	short	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 distances	amod
9	distances	distance	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 fly	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	demonstrate	present	They						vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot clause=Topic
2	fly	could	the individual	short distances					vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location distance=Theme

Option 3

They demonstrate that the individual was a reptile, not a primate

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 demonstrate	nsubj
2	demonstrate	demonstrate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	8 reptile	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 individual	det
5	individual	individual	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 reptile	nsubj
6	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 reptile	cop
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 reptile	det
8	reptile	reptile	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 demonstrate	ccomp
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 primate	punct
10	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	12 primate	advmod
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 primate	det
12	primate	primate	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 reptile	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	demonstrate	present	They						vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	is a	past	the individual	a reptile and a primate					tree rules

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

They demonstrate that the individual walked upright

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 demonstrate	nsubj
2	demonstrate	demonstrate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	6 walked	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 individual	det
5	individual	individual	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 walked	nsubj
6	walked	walk	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 demonstrate	ccomp
7	upright	upright	ADV	_	6 walked	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	demonstrate	present	They						vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot clause=Topic
2	walk	past	the individual					upright property	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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/e4/