Test 3 · Fossils: how a living thing turns to stone and how we dig…

What would happen to a dead fish lying on the seabed for years without being buried?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: dead fish · What happens: happen, lie, bury · To what, where: seabed

This is test 3 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 happen	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	7 fish	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 fish	det
6	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 fish	amod
7	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 happen	obl
8	lying	lie	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 fish	acl
9	on	on	ADP	_	11 seabed	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 seabed	det
11	seabed	seabed	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 lying	obl
12	for	for	ADP	_	13 years	case
13	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 lying	obl
14	without	without	SCONJ	_	16 buried	mark
15	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	16 buried	aux:pass
16	buried	bury	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 happen	advcl
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would				to a dead fish	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	lie	gerund	a dead fish not said here	the seabed	year		vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on seabed=Location
3	bury	gerund · passive					vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP»

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

It would turn to stone in a few weeks, as all dead fish do in the sea

The tree, 17 words

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	3 turn	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 turn	aux
3	turn	turn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	5 stone	case
5	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 turn	obl
6	in	in	ADP	_	9 weeks	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 weeks	det
8	few	few	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 weeks	amod
9	weeks	week	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 turn	obl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 do	punct
11	as	as	SCONJ	_	15 do	mark
12	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	14 fish	det
13	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 fish	amod
14	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 do	nsubj
15	do	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 turn	parataxis
16	in	in	ADP	_	18 sea	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 sea	det
18	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 do	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	turn	would	It			stone	week		vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme to stone=Trajectory
2	do	present	all dead fish			the sea			vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

It would most likely be eaten or rot away and leave no fossil

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 eaten	nsubj:pass
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 eaten	aux
3	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	4 likely	advmod
4	likely	likely	ADV	_	6 eaten	advmod
5	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 eaten	aux:pass
6	eaten	eat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	or	or	CCONJ	_	8 rot	cc
8	rot	rot	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 eaten	conj
9	away	away	ADV	_	8 rot	advmod
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 leave	cc
11	leave	leave	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 rot	conj
12	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	13 fossil	det
13	fossil	fossil	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 leave	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	eat	would · passive	It	likely property	vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
2	rot away	infinitive		away property	vn entity_specific_cos-45.5 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
3	leave	infinitive	no fossil		vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fossil=Theme

Option 3

It would float up and become a cloud

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	3 float	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 float	aux
3	float	float	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	up	up	ADP	_	3 float	compound:prt
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 become	cc
6	become	become	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 float	conj
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 cloud	det
8	cloud	cloud	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 become	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	float up	would	It						vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	become	infinitive		a cloud					vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

Option 4

It would grow into a new fish

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	3 grow	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 grow	aux
3	grow	grow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	into	into	ADP	_	7 fish	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 fish	det
6	new	new	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 fish	amod
7	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 grow	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	would	It					into a new fish result	vn become-109.1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient into fish=Result

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/t3/