Test 5 · Conservation heroes: Attenborough, Goodall, Carson, Maatha…

What would most likely have happened to bald eagles if Silent Spring had never been written?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: happen, not write · To what, where: bald eagles, Silent Spring

This is test 5 of lesson 284 «Conservation heroes: Attenborough, Goodall, Carson, Maathai and the rangers» 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	6 happened	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 happened	aux
3	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	4 likely	advmod
4	likely	likely	ADV	_	6 happened	advmod
5	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 happened	aux
6	happened	happen	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
7	to	to	PART	_	8 bald	mark
8	bald	bald	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 eagles	amod
9	eagles	eagle	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 happened	obj
10	if	if	SCONJ	_	16 written	mark
11	Silent	Silent	PROPN	Number=Sing	12 Spring	flat
12	Spring	Spring	PROPN	Number=Sing	16 written	nsubj:pass
13	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	16 written	aux
14	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	16 written	advmod
15	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	16 written	aux:pass
16	written	write	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 happened	advcl
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	6 happened	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would · perfect		bald eagles				likely property	tree rules
2	not write a condition, not said to happen	past · perfect · passive		Silent Spring					vn scribble-25.2-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

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

Nothing could have harmed eagles

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	4 harmed	nsubj:pass
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 harmed	aux
3	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	4 harmed	aux
4	harmed	harm	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	eagles	eagle	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 harmed	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	harm	could · perfect · passive		Nothing					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP ADJ»: subject=Experiencer eagle=Result

Option 2

Eagles would have learnt to eat DDT and grown stronger from it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Eagles	eagle	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 learnt	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 learnt	aux
3	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	4 learnt	aux
4	learnt	learn	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 eat	mark
6	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 learnt	xcomp
7	DDT	ddt	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 eat	obj
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 grown	cc
9	grown	grow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	4 learnt	conj
10	stronger	strong	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	9 grown	xcomp
11	from	from	ADP	_	12 it	case
12	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 grown	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	learn	would · perfect	Eagles			vn learn-14-2-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	eat	to-infinitive	Eagles not said here	DDT		vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ddt=Patient
3	grow	participle	Eagles not said here		from DDT; strong property	vn grow-26.2.1 «NP.product V PP.patient»: agent=Product from it=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

DDT might have stayed in use longer and harmed more eggs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	DDT	ddt	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 stayed	nsubj:pass
2	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 stayed	aux
3	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	4 stayed	aux
4	stayed	stay	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	in	in	ADV	_	6 use	advmod
6	use	use	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 stayed	conj
7	longer	long	ADV	Degree=Cmp	6 use	advmod
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 harmed	cc
9	harmed	harm	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 stayed	conj
10	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	11 eggs	amod
11	eggs	egg	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 harmed	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	other	roles by
1	stay in	might · perfect · passive	DDT		vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: subject=Location
2	use	present		long property	vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	harm	past	more eggs		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus egg=Experiencer

Option 4

Eagles would have grown bigger

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Eagles	eagle	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 grown	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 grown	aux
3	have	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	4 grown	aux
4	grown	grow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
5	bigger	big	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	4 grown	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	would · perfect	Eagles					big property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=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/284-conservation-heroes-attenborough-goodall-carson-maathai-and-the-rangers/t5/