Test 9 · ★★ · Evolution: why giraffes really have long necks

«half an eye is useless so eyes can't evolve» What is right?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: eye, eyes · What happens: be, not evolve

This is test 9 · ★★ 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	«	«	PUNCT	_	6 useless	punct
2	half	half	DET	NumForm=Word NumType=Frac PronType=Ind	4 eye	det:predet
3	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 eye	det
4	eye	eye	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 useless	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 useless	cop
6	useless	useless	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
7	so	so	ADV	_	11 evolve	advmod
8	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 evolve	nsubj
9	ca	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 evolve	aux
10	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	11 evolve	advmod
11	evolve	evolve	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 useless	advcl
12	»	»	PUNCT	_	11 evolve	punct
13	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	15 right	nsubj
14	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 right	cop
15	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 evolve	ccomp
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 useless	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	is in a quote	present	half eye	useless property	tree rules
2	not evolve in a quote	can	eyes		vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	is	present		right 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 · ✓ the right answer

A simple light patch is already useful, and every stage between exists in animals today

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 patch	det
2	simple	simple	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 patch	amod
3	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 patch	compound
4	patch	patch	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 useful	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 useful	cop
6	already	already	ADV	_	7 useful	advmod
7	useful	useful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 exists	punct
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 exists	cc
10	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	11 stage	det
11	stage	stage	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 exists	nsubj
12	between	between	ADP	_	11 stage	nmod
13	exists	exist	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 useful	conj
14	in	in	ADP	_	15 animals	case
15	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 exists	obl
16	today	today	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 exists	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	a simple light patch					useful property	tree rules
2	exist	present	every stage				today	in animals	vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in animal=Location

Option 2

Right, only people have eyes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Right	right	INTJ	_	5 have	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Right	punct
3	only	only	ADV	_	4 people	advmod
4	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 have	nsubj
5	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 have	obj

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

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Eyes evolved from teeth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 evolved	nsubj
2	evolved	evolve	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	from	from	ADP	_	4 teeth	case
4	teeth	tooth	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 evolved	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	evolve	past	Eyes					from teeth	vn grow-26.2.1 «NP.product V PP.patient»: agent=Product from tooth=Patient

Option 4

Right, eyes came all at once

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Right	right	INTJ	_	3 eyes	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Right	punct
3	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 came	nsubj
4	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	all	all	ADV	_	4 came	advmod
6	at	at	ADP	_	7 once	case
7	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	4 came	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	come	past	eyes					all property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at once=Location

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/t9/