Exam question 3 · Extinct forever: the dodo, the passenger pigeon, the thyla…

Select the response consistent with the established facts concerning the rate of extinction at present.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, established facts · What happens: select, establish, concern · To what, where: response, rate, present

This is exam question 3 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	1 Select	xcomp
5	with	with	ADP	_	8 facts	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 facts	det
7	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 facts	amod
8	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 consistent	obl
9	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 facts	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 rate	det
11	rate	rate	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 extinction	case
13	extinction	extinction	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 rate	nmod
14	at	at	ADP	_	15 present	case
15	present	present	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 concerning	obl
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response		consistent property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	establish	participle					vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
3	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the rate of extinction	present		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus rate=Experiencer

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

Extinction has ceased entirely in the present age

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Extinction	extinction	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 ceased	nsubj:pass
2	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 ceased	aux
3	ceased	cease	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	3 ceased	advmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	8 age	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 age	det
7	present	present	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 age	amod
8	age	age	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 ceased	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cease	present · perfect · passive		Extinction			in the present age	entirely property	vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V NP.eventuality»: subject=Eventuality

Option 2

Extinction occurs exclusively among large mammals

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Extinction	extinction	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 occurs	nsubj
2	occurs	occur	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	exclusively	exclusively	ADV	_	2 occurs	advmod
4	among	among	ADP	_	6 mammals	case
5	large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 mammals	amod
6	mammals	mammal	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 occurs	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	occur	present	Extinction			large mammals		exclusively property	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme among mammal=Location

Option 3

The present rate is identical to that of all former ages

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 rate	det
2	present	present	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 rate	amod
3	rate	rate	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 identical	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 identical	cop
5	identical	identical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	to	to	ADP	_	7 that	case
7	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	5 identical	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	11 ages	case
9	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	11 ages	det
10	former	former	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 ages	amod
11	ages	age	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 that	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the present rate					to that; identical property	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Species are presently vanishing considerably faster than the natural rate, owing to human activity

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Species	species	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 vanishing	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 vanishing	aux
3	presently	presently	ADV	_	4 vanishing	advmod
4	vanishing	vanish	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	considerably	considerably	ADV	_	6 faster	advmod
6	faster	fast	ADV	Degree=Cmp	4 vanishing	advmod
7	than	than	ADP	_	10 rate	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 rate	det
9	natural	natural	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 rate	amod
10	rate	rate	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 faster	obl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 owing	punct
12	owing	owe	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 vanishing	conj
13	to	to	ADP	_	15 activity	case
14	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 activity	amod
15	activity	activity	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 owing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	vanish	present · progressive	Species					fast, presently property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	owe	gerund	Species not said here					to human activity goal	vn future_having-13.3 «NP V NP PP.goal»: agent=Agent to activity=Goal

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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