Test 5 · ★★ · Natural selection we can watch: moths, finches, germs and…

What would happen if all the trees near a city became pale again after the soot was cleaned?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: trees · What happens: happen, become, clean · To what, where: soot

This is test 5 · ★★ of lesson 279 «Natural selection we can watch: moths, finches, germs and tuskless elephants» 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	if	if	SCONJ	_	11 became	mark
5	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 trees	det:predet
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 trees	det
7	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 became	nsubj
8	near	near	ADP	_	10 city	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 city	det
10	city	city	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 trees	nmod
11	became	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
12	pale	pale	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 became	xcomp
13	again	again	ADV	_	11 became	advmod
14	after	after	SCONJ	_	18 cleaned	mark
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 soot	det
16	soot	soot	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 cleaned	nsubj:pass
17	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	18 cleaned	aux:pass
18	cleaned	clean	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 became	advcl
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would					vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	become a condition, not said to happen	past	all trees near a city		again	pale property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
3	clean	past · passive		the soot			vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=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 · ✓ the right answer

Pale moths would be hidden and become common again

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	5 hidden	nsubj:pass
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 hidden	aux
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 hidden	aux:pass
5	hidden	hide	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 become	cc
7	become	become	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 hidden	conj
8	common	common	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 become	xcomp
9	again	again	ADV	_	8 common	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hide	would · passive		Pale moths					vn concealment-16-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
2	become	infinitive						common property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

Option 2

All moths would leave the city

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	All	all	DET	PronType=Tot	2 moths	det
2	moths	moth	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 leave	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 leave	aux
4	leave	leave	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 city	det
6	city	city	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 leave	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	leave	would	all moths	the city					vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent city=Theme

Option 3

Birds would stop eating moths

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 stop	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 stop	aux
3	stop	stop	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	eating	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 stop	xcomp
5	moths	moth	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 eating	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	stop	would	Birds						vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality
2	eat	gerund	Birds not said here	moths					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent moth=Patient

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

Dark moths would turn pale overnight

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	4 turn	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 turn	aux
4	turn	turn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	pale	pale	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 turn	xcomp
6	overnight	overnight	ADV	_	4 turn	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	turn	would	Dark moths					overnight, pale property	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme

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/279-natural-selection-we-can-watch-moths-finches-germs-and-tuskless-elephants/t5/