Test 4 · ★★ · Evolution: why giraffes really have long necks

What would happen over many generations if a river fish species got trapped in a dark cave?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: happen, trap · To what, where: many generations, fish species, dark cave

This is test 4 · ★★ of lesson 278 «Evolution: why giraffes really have long necks» 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	over	over	ADP	_	6 generations	case
5	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 generations	amod
6	generations	generation	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 happen	obl
7	if	if	SCONJ	_	13 trapped	mark
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 river	det
9	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 fish	compound
10	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 species	compound
11	species	species	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 trapped	nsubj:pass
12	got	get	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	13 trapped	aux:pass
13	trapped	trap	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 happen	advcl
14	in	in	ADP	_	17 cave	case
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 cave	det
16	dark	dark	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 cave	amod
17	cave	cave	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 trapped	obl
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would					over many generations		vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme over generation=Location
2	trap a condition, not said to happen	past · passive		fish species		a dark cave			vn pocket-9.10 «NP V NP PP.destination»: subject=Theme in cave=Destination

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 into a bat

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	into	into	ADP	_	6 bat	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 bat	det
6	bat	bat	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 turn	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	turn	would	It			a bat			vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into bat=Trajectory

Option 2

It would grow bigger eyes to see in the dark

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	bigger	big	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	5 eyes	amod
5	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 grow	obj
6	to	to	PART	_	7 see	mark
7	see	see	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 grow	advcl
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 dark	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 dark	det
10	dark	dark	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 see	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	would	It	bigger eyes					vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location eye=Theme
2	see	to-infinitive				the dark			vn comprehend-87.2-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Its eyes might slowly get smaller or disappear

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 eyes	nmod:poss
2	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 get	nsubj
3	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 get	aux
4	slowly	slowly	ADV	_	5 get	advmod
5	get	get	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	smaller	small	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	5 get	xcomp
7	or	or	CCONJ	_	8 disappear	cc
8	disappear	disappear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 get	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	get	might	Its eyes					slowly, small property	vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer
2	disappear	infinitive	Its eyes not said here						vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

Nothing could ever change

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	4 change	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 change	aux
3	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	4 change	advmod
4	change	change	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	change	could	Nothing				ever		vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/278-evolution-why-giraffes-really-have-long-necks/t4/