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

«found a curly stone on the beach, my nan says it's a snake turned into stone» What is right?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: nan · What happens: find, say, be, turn · To what, where: curly stone, beach, snake, stone · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 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. 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	«	«	PUNCT	_	2 found	punct
2	found	find	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 stone	det
4	curly	curly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 stone	amod
5	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 found	obj
6	on	on	ADP	_	8 beach	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 beach	det
8	beach	beach	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 found	obl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 says	punct
10	my	my	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Sing Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 nan	nmod:poss
11	nan	nan	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 says	nsubj
12	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 found	parataxis
13	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 snake	nsubj
14	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 snake	cop
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 snake	det
16	snake	snake	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 says	ccomp
17	turned	turn	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	16 snake	acl
18	into	into	ADP	_	19 stone	case
19	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 turned	obl
20	»	»	PUNCT	_	17 turned	punct
21	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	23 right	nsubj
22	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	23 right	cop
23	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 turned	parataxis
24	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 found	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	find in a quote	past		a curly stone	the beach		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent stone=Topic
2	say speech: assert in a quote	present	my nan				vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
3	is a in a quote	present	nan	a snake			tree rules
4	turn in a quote	participle		a snake not said here	stone		tree rules
5	is	present				right 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

Yes, snakes curl up tight and then turn to stone when they die

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	4 curl	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Yes	punct
3	snakes	snake	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 curl	nsubj
4	curl	curl	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	up	up	ADP	_	4 curl	compound:prt
6	tight	tight	ADV	_	4 curl	advmod
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 turn	cc
8	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	9 turn	advmod
9	turn	turn	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	4 curl	conj
10	to	to	ADP	_	11 stone	case
11	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 turn	obl
12	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	14 die	advmod
13	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 die	nsubj
14	die	die	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 turn	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	when	other	roles by
1	curl up	present	snakes			tight property	vn coil-9.6-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Theme
2	turn	infinitive	snakes not said here	stone	then		vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme to stone=Trajectory
3	die	present	snakes = snake				vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

It is a stone polished by waves, never alive

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	4 stone	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 stone	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 stone	det
4	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	polished	polish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 stone	acl
6	by	by	ADP	_	7 waves	case
7	waves	wave	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 polished	obl:agent
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 alive	punct
9	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	10 alive	advmod
10	alive	alive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 stone	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a stone	tree rules
2	polish	participle		a stone not said here	vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent
3	not be				tree rules

Option 3

It is a snail that died last summer

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	4 snail	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 snail	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 snail	det
4	snail	snail	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 died	nsubj
6	died	die	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 snail	acl:relcl
7	last	last	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 summer	amod
8	summer	summer	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 died	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a snail					tree rules
2	die	past	a snail				summer		vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

It is most likely an ammonite, a sea animal with a coiled shell

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	6 ammonite	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 ammonite	cop
3	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	4 likely	advmod
4	likely	likely	ADV	_	6 ammonite	advmod
5	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 ammonite	det
6	ammonite	ammonite	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 animal	punct
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 animal	det
9	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 animal	compound
10	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 ammonite	appos
11	with	with	ADP	_	14 shell	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 shell	det
13	coiled	coiled	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 shell	amod
14	shell	shell	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 animal	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	It	a ammonite				likely property	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/275-fossils-how-a-living-thing-turns-to-stone-and-how-we-dig-it-up/t1/