Test 6 · ★★ · Natural selection we can watch: moths, finches, germs and…

«the elephants decided to stop growing tusks so poachers leave 'em alone, smart» What is right?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: elephants, poachers · What happens: decide, stop, grow, leave, be · To what, where: tusks, 'em

This is test 6 · ★★ 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	«	«	PUNCT	_	4 decided	punct
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 elephants	det
3	elephants	elephant	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 decided	nsubj
4	decided	decide	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 stop	mark
6	stop	stop	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 decided	xcomp
7	growing	grow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 stop	xcomp
8	tusks	tusk	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 growing	obj
9	so	so	SCONJ	_	11 leave	mark
10	poachers	poacher	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 leave	nsubj
11	leave	leave	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 decided	advcl
12	'em	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 leave	obj
13	alone	alone	ADV	_	11 leave	advmod
14	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 smart	punct
15	smart	smart	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 leave	advcl
16	»	»	PUNCT	_	15 smart	punct
17	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	19 right	nsubj
18	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	19 right	cop
19	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 smart	conj
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 decided	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	decide in a quote	past	the elephants			vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	stop not said to happen, in a quote	to-infinitive	the elephants not said here			vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality
3	grow in a quote	gerund	the elephants not said here	tusks		vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location tusk=Theme
4	leave in a quote	present	poachers	'em = they	alone property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme
5	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 · ← Mova's choice

Yes, elephants chose to drop their tusks, and they taught their babies to do it too

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	4 chose	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Yes	punct
3	elephants	elephant	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 chose	nsubj
4	chose	choose	VERB	Mood=Ind Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 drop	mark
6	drop	drop	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 chose	xcomp
7	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 tusks	nmod:poss
8	tusks	tusk	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 drop	obj
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 taught	punct
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 taught	cc
11	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 taught	nsubj
12	taught	teach	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 chose	conj
13	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 babies	nmod:poss
14	babies	baby	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 taught	obj
15	to	to	PART	_	16 do	mark
16	do	do	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	12 taught	xcomp
17	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 do	obj
18	too	too	ADV	_	16 do	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	choose	past	elephants		tree rules
2	drop	to-infinitive	elephants not said here	elephants's tusks	vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tusk=Theme
3	teach speech: other	past	elephants = elephant	elephants's babies	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent baby=Recipient clause=Topic
4	do	to-infinitive	elephants's babies not said here	it	vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

No, elephants did not decide; tuskless ones survived more and had more babies

The tree, 13 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	INTJ	Polarity=Neg	6 decide	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 No	punct
3	elephants	elephant	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 decide	nsubj
4	did	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 decide	aux
5	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	6 decide	advmod
6	decide	decide	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	;	;	PUNCT	_	10 survived	punct
8	tuskless	tuskless	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 ones	amod
9	ones	one	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 survived	nsubj
10	survived	survive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 decide	parataxis
11	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	10 survived	advmod
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 had	cc
13	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	10 survived	conj
14	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	15 babies	amod
15	babies	baby	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 had	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	not decide	past · do-support	elephants		vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	survive	past	tuskless ones		vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	have	past	tuskless ones not said here	more babies	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent baby=Patient

Option 3

No, the tusks were taken by zoos

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	INTJ	Polarity=Neg	6 taken	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 No	punct
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 tusks	det
4	tusks	tusk	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 taken	nsubj:pass
5	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 taken	aux:pass
6	taken	take	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	by	by	ADP	_	8 zoos	case
8	zoos	zoo	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 taken	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	take	past · passive	zoos	the tusks					vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme

Option 4

Yes, they talked to each other about it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Yes	yes	INTJ	Polarity=Pos	4 talked	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Yes	punct
3	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 talked	nsubj
4	talked	talk	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	to	to	ADP	_	6 each	case
6	each	each	DET	ExtPos=PRON PronType=Rcp	4 talked	obl
7	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 each	fixed
8	about	about	ADP	_	9 it	case
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 talked	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	talk	past	they					to each; about it	vn talk-37.5 «NP V PP.co-agent PP.topic»: agent=Agent to each=Co-Agent about it=Topic

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/t6/