Exam question 2 · How old is it? Rock layers, rock clocks, amber and the lon…

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the recovery of dinosaurian DNA from amber.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts, dinosaurian DNA · What happens: select, establish, concern, recover · To what, where: response, recovery

This is exam question 2 of lesson 276 «How old is it? Rock layers, rock clocks, amber and the long story of life» 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	xcomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 facts	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 facts	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 facts	amod
8	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 facts	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 recovery	det
11	recovery	recovery	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 DNA	case
13	dinosaurian	dinosaurian	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 DNA	amod
14	DNA	DNA	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 recovery	nmod
15	from	from	ADP	_	16 amber	case
16	amber	amber	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 DNA	nmod
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response	consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the recovery of dinosaurian DNA from amber		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus recovery=Experiencer
4	recover		dinosaurian DNA from amber			nom recovery «event intransitive»: of=agent

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

Such DNA is recovered routinely by carbon dating

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 DNA	amod
2	DNA	DNA	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 recovered	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 recovered	aux:pass
4	recovered	recover	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	routinely	routinely	ADV	_	4 recovered	advmod
6	by	by	ADP	_	8 dating	case
7	carbon	carbon	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 dating	compound
8	dating	dating	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 recovered	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	recover	present · passive	carbon dating	Such DNA				routinely property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

No such DNA has been recovered, as DNA degrades over far shorter periods

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	DET	PronType=Neg	3 DNA	det
2	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 DNA	amod
3	DNA	DNA	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 recovered	nsubj:pass
4	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 recovered	aux
5	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	6 recovered	aux:pass
6	recovered	recover	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 degrades	punct
8	as	as	SCONJ	_	10 degrades	mark
9	DNA	DNA	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 degrades	nsubj
10	degrades	degrade	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 recovered	advcl
11	over	over	ADV	_	10 degrades	advmod
12	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	13 shorter	advmod
13	shorter	short	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	14 periods	amod
14	periods	period	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 degrades	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	recover	present · perfect · passive		no such DNA					vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
2	degrade over	present	DNA	shorter periods				over property	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent period=Patient

Option 3

Such DNA has been recovered exclusively from mosquitoes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 DNA	amod
2	DNA	DNA	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 recovered	nsubj:pass
3	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 recovered	aux
4	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	5 recovered	aux:pass
5	recovered	recover	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	exclusively	exclusively	ADV	_	5 recovered	advmod
7	from	from	ADP	_	8 mosquitoes	case
8	mosquitoes	mosquito	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 recovered	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	recover	present · perfect · passive		Such DNA				from mosquitoes; exclusively property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP PP.source»: subject=Theme from mosquito=Source

Option 4

Complete dinosaurian DNA has been recovered on numerous occasions

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Complete	complete	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 DNA	amod
2	dinosaurian	dinosaurian	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 DNA	amod
3	DNA	DNA	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 recovered	nsubj:pass
4	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 recovered	aux
5	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	6 recovered	aux:pass
6	recovered	recover	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	on	on	ADP	_	9 occasions	case
8	numerous	numerous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 occasions	amod
9	occasions	occasion	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 recovered	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	recover	present · perfect · passive		Complete dinosaurian DNA		numerous occasions			vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: subject=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.

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