Exam question 1 · Extinct forever: the dodo, the passenger pigeon, the thyla…

Identify the principal cause of the extinction of the dodo.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, cause, extinguish · To what, where: principal cause, extinction, dodo

This is exam question 1 of lesson 281 «Extinct forever: the dodo, the passenger pigeon, the thylacine and more» 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 extinction	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 extinction	det
7	extinction	extinction	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 cause	nmod
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 dodo	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 dodo	det
10	dodo	dodo	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 extinction	nmod
11	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal cause of the extinction of the dodo	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent cause=Theme
2	cause			the extinction of the dodo	nom cause «event transitive»: of=patient
3	extinguish			the dodo	nom extinction «state 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

A failure to adapt to cold climates

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 failure	det
2	failure	failure	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	to	to	PART	_	4 adapt	mark
4	adapt	adapt	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 failure	acl
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 climates	case
6	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 climates	amod
7	climates	climate	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 adapt	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	adapt	to-infinitive						to cold climates goal	vn adjust-26.9 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent to climate=Goal

Option 2

An innate deficiency of intelligence, which prevented it from obtaining sufficient food

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 deficiency	det
2	innate	innate	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 deficiency	amod
3	deficiency	deficiency	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 prevented	nsubj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 intelligence	case
5	intelligence	intelligence	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 deficiency	nmod
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 prevented	punct
7	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 prevented	nsubj
8	prevented	prevent	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 prevented	obj
10	from	from	SCONJ	_	11 obtaining	mark
11	obtaining	obtain	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	8 prevented	advcl
12	sufficient	sufficient	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 food	amod
13	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 obtaining	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prevent	past	a innate deficiency of intelligence	intelligence					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer it=Theme
2	obtain	gerund	a innate deficiency of intelligence not said here	sufficient food					vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset food=Theme

Option 3

A volcanic eruption upon Mauritius

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 eruption	det
2	volcanic	volcanic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 eruption	amod
3	eruption	eruption	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	upon	upon	ADP	_	5 Mauritius	case
5	Mauritius	Mauritius	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 eruption	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The arrival of people together with rats, pigs and monkeys introduced to its island

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 arrival	det
2	arrival	arrival	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 people	case
4	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 arrival	nmod
5	together	together	ADV	_	4 people	advmod
6	with	with	ADP	_	7 rats	case
7	rats	rat	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 people	nmod
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 pigs	punct
9	pigs	pig	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 rats	conj
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 monkeys	cc
11	monkeys	monkey	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 rats	conj
12	introduced	introduce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 rats	acl
13	to	to	ADP	_	15 island	case
14	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 island	nmod:poss
15	island	island	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 introduced	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	introduce	participle		rats and pigs and monkeys not said here				to arrival's island	vn amalgamate-22.2-3-1 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: agent=Agent to island=Co-Patient
2	arrive		people with rats and pigs and monkeys						nom arrival «act intransitive»: of=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.

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