Test 9 · Fossils: how a living thing turns to stone and how we dig…

«cyclops were real, they found the skulls» What is closest to the truth?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: cyclops · What happens: be, find · To what, where: skulls · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 9 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	_	4 real	punct
2	cyclops	cyclops	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 real	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 real	cop
4	real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 found	punct
6	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 found	nsubj
7	found	find	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 closest	advcl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 skulls	det
9	skulls	skull	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 found	obj
10	»	»	PUNCT	_	7 found	punct
11	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	13 closest	nsubj
12	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 closest	cop
13	closest	close	ADJ	Degree=Sup	4 real	parataxis
14	to	to	ADP	_	16 truth	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 truth	det
16	truth	truth	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 closest	obl
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 real	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is in a quote	past	cyclops		real property	tree rules
2	find in a quote	past	cyclops	the skulls		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent skull=Topic
3	is	present			to the truth; close 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

Mammoths really had only one eye

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Mammoths	mammoth	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 had	nsubj
2	really	really	ADV	_	3 had	advmod
3	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	only	only	ADV	_	5 one	advmod
5	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 eye	nummod
6	eye	eye	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 had	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	past	Mammoths	one eye					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eye=Patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Some historians think mammoth skulls with one big nose hole inspired stories of one-eyed giants

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Some	some	DET	PronType=Ind	2 historians	det
2	historians	historian	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 think	nsubj
3	think	think	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	mammoth	mammoth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 skulls	amod
5	skulls	skull	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 think	obj
6	with	with	ADP	_	10 hole	case
7	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	10 hole	nummod
8	big	big	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 hole	amod
9	nose	nose	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 hole	compound
10	hole	hole	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 think	obl
11	inspired	inspire	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	12 stories	amod
12	stories	story	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 hole	conj
13	of	of	ADP	_	17 giants	case
14	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	16 eyed	nummod
15	-	-	PUNCT	_	14 one	punct
16	eyed	eyed	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 giants	amod
17	giants	giant	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 stories	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	think speech: other	present	some historians	mammoth skulls				with one big nose hole and inspired stories of eyed giants	vn wish-62 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot skull=Theme
2	inspire	participle							vn amuse-31.1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Experiencer

Option 3

Yes, scientists have dug up real cyclops skeletons

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	5 dug	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Yes	punct
3	scientists	scientist	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 dug	nsubj
4	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 dug	aux
5	dug	dig	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
6	up	up	ADP	_	5 dug	compound:prt
7	real	real	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 cyclops	amod
8	cyclops	cyclops	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 dug	obj
9	skeletons	skeleton	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 dug	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dig up	present · perfect	scientists	real cyclops					vn create-26.4-1-1 «NP V NP.beneficiary NP»: agent=Agent cyclops=Beneficiary skeleton=Result

Option 4

The skulls were of giant owls

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 skulls	det
2	skulls	skull	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 owls	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 owls	cop
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 owls	case
5	giant	giant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 owls	amod
6	owls	owl	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	the skulls					of giant owls	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/t9/