Exam question 3 · What a child can do for nature

Ascertain the reason for which the reduction of artificial illumination at night is advised.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, advise, reduce · To what, where: reason, reduction, artificial illumination

This is exam question 3 of lesson 285 «What a child can do for nature» 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	14 advised	obl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 reduction	det
7	reduction	reduction	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 advised	nsubj:pass
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 illumination	case
9	artificial	artificial	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 illumination	amod
10	illumination	illumination	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 reduction	nmod
11	at	at	ADP	_	12 night	case
12	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 illumination	nmod
13	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	14 advised	aux:pass
14	advised	advise	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 reason	acl:relcl
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the reason		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	advise speech: other	present · passive		the reduction of artificial illumination at night	for the reason	vn advise-37.9-1 «NP V NP.recipient»: subject=Recipient
3	reduce			artificial illumination at night		nom reduction «act 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

Darkness increases the population of rodents

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Darkness	darkness	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 increases	nsubj
2	increases	increase	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 population	det
4	population	population	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 increases	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 rodents	case
6	rodents	rodent	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 population	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	increase	present	Darkness	the population of rodents					vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Causer population=Patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Bright lights disorient moths, migrating birds and hatchling turtles

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Bright	bright	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 lights	amod
2	lights	light	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 disorient	nsubj
3	disorient	disorient	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	moths	moth	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 disorient	obj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 birds	punct
6	migrating	migrate	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 birds	amod
7	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 moths	conj
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 turtles	cc
9	hatchling	hatchling	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 turtles	compound
10	turtles	turtle	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 moths	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	disorient	present	Bright lights	moths and migrating birds and hatchling turtles					tree rules
2	migrate	gerund							tree rules

Option 3

Illumination causes flowers to close prematurely

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Illumination	illumination	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 causes	nsubj
2	causes	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	flowers	flower	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 causes	obj
4	to	to	PART	_	5 close	mark
5	close	close	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 causes	xcomp
6	prematurely	prematurely	ADV	_	5 close	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cause	present	Illumination	flowers					tree rules
2	close	to-infinitive	flowers not said here					prematurely property	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 4

Artificial light accelerates the growth of weeds

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Artificial	artificial	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 light	amod
2	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 accelerates	nsubj
3	accelerates	accelerate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 growth	det
5	growth	growth	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 accelerates	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 weeds	case
7	weeds	weed	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 growth	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	accelerate	present	Artificial light	the growth of weeds					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent growth=Patient
2	grow		weeds						nom growth «process 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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/285-what-a-child-can-do-for-nature/e3/