Exam question 1 · Natural selection we can watch: moths, finches, germs and…

Identify the principal cause of the increase in dark peppered moths near industrial cities.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, pepper, cause · To what, where: principal cause, increase

This is exam question 1 of lesson 279 «Natural selection we can watch: moths, finches, germs and tuskless elephants» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 cause	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 cause	amod
4	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 increase	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 increase	det
7	increase	increase	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 cause	nmod
8	in	in	ADP	_	11 moths	case
9	dark	dark	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 moths	amod
10	peppered	pepper	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 moths	amod
11	moths	moth	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 increase	nmod
12	near	near	ADP	_	14 cities	case
13	industrial	industrial	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 cities	amod
14	cities	city	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 moths	nmod
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal cause of the increase in dark peppered moths near industrial cities	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent cause=Theme
2	pepper	participle			vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent
3	cause			the increase in dark peppered moths near industrial cities	nom cause «event transitive»: of=patient

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 · ✓ the right answer

Dark individuals were concealed upon soot-darkened trees and were less frequently eaten by birds

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Dark	dark	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 individuals	amod
2	individuals	individual	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 concealed	nsubj
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 concealed	aux:pass
4	concealed	conceal	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	upon	upon	ADP	_	9 trees	case
6	soot	soot	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 darkened	compound
7	-	-	PUNCT	_	6 soot	punct
8	darkened	darken	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 trees	amod
9	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 concealed	obl
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 eaten	cc
11	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	14 eaten	aux:pass
12	less	less	ADV	Degree=Cmp	14 eaten	advmod
13	frequently	frequently	ADV	_	14 eaten	advmod
14	eaten	eat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 concealed	conj
15	by	by	ADP	_	16 birds	case
16	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 eaten	obl:agent

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	conceal	past · passive		Dark individuals	darkened trees		vn concealment-16 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Patient upon tree=Location
2	darken	participle					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
3	eat	past · passive	birds			frequently, less property	vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

Pale moths migrated to the countryside of their own accord

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Pale	pale	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 moths	amod
2	moths	moth	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	migrated	migrate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 moths	acl
4	to	to	ADP	_	6 countryside	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 countryside	det
6	countryside	countryside	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 migrated	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	10 accord	case
8	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 accord	nmod:poss
9	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 accord	amod
10	accord	accord	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 countryside	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	migrate	participle		Pale moths not said here				to the countryside of moths's own accord	tree rules

Option 3

Dark moths were deliberately bred by naturalists

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Dark	dark	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 moths	amod
2	moths	moth	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 bred	nsubj:pass
3	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 bred	aux:pass
4	deliberately	deliberately	ADV	_	5 bred	advmod
5	bred	breed	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	by	by	ADP	_	7 naturalists	case
7	naturalists	naturalist	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 bred	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	breed	past · passive	naturalists	Dark moths				deliberately property	tree rules

Option 4

Factory smoke chemically altered the colour of individual moths

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Factory	factory	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 smoke	compound
2	smoke	smoke	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 altered	nsubj
3	chemically	chemically	ADV	_	4 altered	advmod
4	altered	alter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 colour	det
6	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 altered	obj
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 moths	case
8	individual	individual	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 moths	amod
9	moths	moth	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 colour	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	alter	past	Factory smoke	the colour of individual moths				chemically property	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent colour=Patient

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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