Exam question 3 · How old is it? Rock layers, rock clocks, amber and the lon…

Ascertain the approximate upper limit of the age which may be determined by carbon dating.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, carbon dating · What happens: ascertain, determine · To what, where: approximate upper limit, age

This is exam question 3 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 limit	det
3	approximate	approximate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 limit	amod
4	upper	upper	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 limit	amod
5	limit	limit	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 age	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 age	det
8	age	age	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 limit	nmod
9	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 determined	nsubj:pass
10	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 determined	aux
11	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	12 determined	aux:pass
12	determined	determine	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 age	acl:relcl
13	by	by	ADP	_	15 dating	case
14	carbon	carbon	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 dating	compound
15	dating	dating	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 determined	obl
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the approximate upper limit of the age					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent limit=Topic
2	determine	may · passive	carbon dating	the age					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Topic

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

Approximately four and a half billion years

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Approximately	approximately	ADV	_	6 billion	advmod
2	four	four	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 billion	compound
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 half	cc
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 half	det
5	half	half	NOUN	Number=Sing NumForm=Word NumType=Frac	2 four	conj
6	billion	billion	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 years	nummod
7	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Approximately fifty thousand years

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Approximately	approximately	ADV	_	3 thousand	advmod
2	fifty	fifty	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 thousand	compound
3	thousand	thousand	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	4 years	nummod
4	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

Approximately one hundred and fifty years

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Approximately	approximately	ADV	_	3 hundred	advmod
2	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 hundred	compound
3	hundred	hundred	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 years	nummod
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 fifty	cc
5	fifty	fifty	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 hundred	conj
6	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

Approximately sixty-six million years

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Approximately	approximately	ADV	_	5 million	advmod
2	sixty	sixty	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	5 million	compound
3	-	-	PUNCT	_	2 sixty	punct
4	six	six	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	2 sixty	conj
5	million	million	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	6 years	nummod
6	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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/276-how-old-is-it-rock-layers-rock-clocks-amber-and-the-long-story-of-life/e3/