Test 7 · ★ · How old is it? Rock layers, rock clocks, amber and the lon…

What would we see if we found the same fossil plant in Africa and South America?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: we · What happens: see, find · To what, where: same fossil plant, Africa

This is test 7 · ★ 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. 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	4 see	obj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 see	aux
3	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	4 see	nsubj
4	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	if	if	SCONJ	_	7 found	mark
6	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	7 found	nsubj
7	found	find	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 see	ccomp
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 plant	det
9	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 plant	amod
10	fossil	fossil	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 plant	compound
11	plant	plant	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 found	obj
12	in	in	ADP	_	13 Africa	case
13	Africa	Africa	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 plant	nmod
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	16 America	cc
15	South	South	PROPN	Number=Sing	16 America	compound
16	America	America	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 Africa	conj
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 see	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	see	would	we						tree rules
2	find a condition, not said to happen	past	we	the same fossil plant		Africa and South America			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent plant=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

Proof that seeds swam across the ocean

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Proof	proof	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	4 swam	obj
3	seeds	seed	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 swam	nsubj
4	swam	swim	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	1 Proof	acl:relcl
5	across	across	ADP	_	7 ocean	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 ocean	det
7	ocean	ocean	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 swam	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	swim	past	seeds	Proof		the ocean			vn run-51.3.2-1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial_Location that=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

A sign that the continents were once joined

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 sign	det
2	sign	sign	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	8 joined	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 continents	det
5	continents	continent	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 joined	nsubj:pass
6	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	8 joined	aux:pass
7	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	8 joined	advmod
8	joined	join	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 sign	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	join	past · passive	a sign not said here	the continents				once property	vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 3

Proof that Africa is older

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Proof	proof	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 older	nsubj
2	that	that	SCONJ	_	3 Africa	mark
3	Africa	Africa	PROPN	Number=Sing	1 Proof	nmod
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 older	cop
5	older	old	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Proof Africa					old property	tree rules

Option 4

A sign that the fossils are fake

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 sign	det
2	sign	sign	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	7 fake	mark
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 fossils	det
5	fossils	fossil	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 fake	nsubj
6	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 fake	cop
7	fake	fake	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 sign	acl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the fossils	a sign not said here				fake 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/276-how-old-is-it-rock-layers-rock-clocks-amber-and-the-long-story-of-life/t7/