Test 7 · Extinct forever: the dodo, the passenger pigeon, the thyla…

«species die out all the time anyway so who cares» What is the best answer?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: species, best answer · What happens: die out, care, be

This is test 7 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 die	punct
2	species	species	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 die	nsubj
3	die	die	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	out	out	ADP	_	3 die	compound:prt
5	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 time	det:predet
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 time	det
7	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 die	obl:unmarked
8	anyway	anyway	ADV	_	3 die	advmod
9	so	so	ADV	_	11 cares	advmod
10	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 cares	nsubj
11	cares	care	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 die	advcl
12	»	»	PUNCT	_	11 cares	punct
13	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	11 cares	obl
14	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 What	cop
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 answer	det
16	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	17 answer	amod
17	answer	answer	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 What	nsubj
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 die	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	when	other	roles by
1	die out in a quote	present	species	time	anyway property	vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute
2	care in a quote	present				vn care-88.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer
3	is a	present	the best answer			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

No species ever died out before people

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	DET	PronType=Neg	2 species	det
2	species	species	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 died	nsubj
3	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	4 died	advmod
4	died	die	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	out	out	ADP	_	4 died	compound:prt
6	before	before	ADP	_	7 people	case
7	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 died	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	die out	past	no species				before people; ever		vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Extinction is natural, but today it is much faster than normal because of people

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Extinction	extinction	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 natural	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 natural	cop
3	natural	natural	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 normal	punct
5	but	but	CCONJ	_	12 normal	cc
6	today	today	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 normal	obl:unmarked
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 normal	nsubj
8	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 normal	cop
9	much	much	ADV	_	10 faster	advmod
10	faster	fast	ADV	Degree=Cmp	12 normal	advmod
11	than	than	ADP	_	12 normal	case
12	normal	normal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 natural	conj
13	because	because	ADP	ExtPos=ADP	15 people	case
14	of	of	ADP	_	13 because	fixed
15	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 normal	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Extinction					natural property	tree rules
2	is	present	Extinction				today	because people; fast, normal property	tree rules

Option 3

Only big animals can go extinct

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Only	only	ADV	_	3 animals	advmod
2	big	big	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 animals	amod
3	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 go	nsubj
4	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 go	aux
5	go	go	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	extinct	extinct	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 go	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	can	big animals					extinct property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

Right, extinction never matters at all, because new animals always take their place

The tree, 13 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Right	right	INTJ	_	3 extinction	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Right	punct
3	extinction	extinction	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 matters	nsubj
4	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	5 matters	advmod
5	matters	matter	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	at	at	ADP	_	7 all	case
7	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	5 matters	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 take	punct
9	because	because	SCONJ	_	13 take	mark
10	new	new	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 animals	amod
11	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 take	nsubj
12	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	13 take	advmod
13	take	take	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 matters	conj
14	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 place	nmod:poss
15	place	place	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 take	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not matter	present	extinction			all			vn matter-91 «NP V»: agent=Stimulus
2	take	present	new animals	animals's place				always property	vn bring-11.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent place=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/281-extinct-forever-the-dodo-the-passenger-pigeon-the-thylacine-and-more/t7/