Test 5 · Extinct forever: the dodo, the passenger pigeon, the thyla…

«there were billions of passenger pigeons, you can't kill billions» What is right?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: billions, you · What happens: be, not kill · To what, where: billions · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 5 of lesson 281 «Extinct forever: the dodo, the passenger pigeon, the thylacine and more» 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	_	3 were	punct
2	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	3 were	expl
3	were	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 kill	ccomp
4	billions	billion	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 were	nsubj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 pigeons	case
6	passenger	passenger	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 pigeons	compound
7	pigeons	pigeon	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 billions	nmod
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 were	punct
9	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	12 kill	nsubj
10	ca	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 kill	aux
11	n't	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	12 kill	advmod
12	kill	kill	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
13	billions	billion	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 kill	obj
14	»	»	PUNCT	_	12 kill	punct
15	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	17 right	nsubj
16	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	17 right	cop
17	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 kill	advcl
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	12 kill	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	be in a quote	past	billions of passenger pigeons		there		vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	not kill in a quote	can	you	billions			tree rules
3	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 · ✓ the right answer

People did: mass hunting and forest cutting killed them all by 1914

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	People	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 did	nsubj
2	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	:	:	PUNCT	_	4 mass	punct
4	mass	mass	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 did	xcomp
5	hunting	hunting	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 killed	nsubj
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 forest	cc
7	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 hunting	conj
8	cutting	cutting	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 hunting	conj
9	killed	kill	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 mass	ccomp
10	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 killed	obj
11	all	all	ADV	_	13 1914	advmod
12	by	by	ADP	_	13 1914	case
13	1914	1914	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	9 killed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	do	past	People			tree rules
2	mass	infinitive	People not said here			tree rules
3	kill	past	hunting and forest and cutting	People	by 1914	vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme

Option 2

They turned into ordinary pigeons

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 turned	nsubj
2	turned	turn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	into	into	ADP	_	5 pigeons	case
4	ordinary	ordinary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 pigeons	amod
5	pigeons	pigeon	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 turned	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	turn	past	They			ordinary pigeons			vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into pigeon=Trajectory

Option 3

Right, they are still flying today in huge flocks over the forests of Canada

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Right	right	INTJ	_	6 flying	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Right	punct
3	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 flying	nsubj
4	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 flying	aux
5	still	still	ADV	_	6 flying	advmod
6	flying	fly	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
7	today	today	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 flying	obl:unmarked
8	in	in	ADP	_	10 flocks	case
9	huge	huge	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 flocks	amod
10	flocks	flock	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 flying	obl
11	over	over	ADP	_	13 forests	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 forests	det
13	forests	forest	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 flying	obl
14	of	of	ADP	_	15 Canada	case
15	Canada	Canada	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 forests	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fly	present · progressive	they			huge flocks	still; today	over the forests of Canada	vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in flock=Location

Option 4

They all flew to Europe

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 flew	nsubj
2	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	3 flew	advmod
3	flew	fly	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	5 Europe	case
5	Europe	Europe	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 flew	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fly	past	They		Europe				vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.result»: agent=Theme to europe=Result

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/281-extinct-forever-the-dodo-the-passenger-pigeon-the-thylacine-and-more/t5/