Exam question 3 · Food from around the world: how crops travelled the globe

Ascertain the principal reason for the long preservation of honey.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, preserve · To what, where: principal reason, honey

This is exam question 3 of lesson 289 «Food from around the world: how crops travelled the globe» 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	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	8 preservation	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 preservation	det
7	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 preservation	amod
8	preservation	preservation	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 reason	nmod
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 honey	case
10	honey	honey	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 preservation	nmod
11	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason				for the long preservation of honey	vn ensure-99 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Precondition reason=Theme for preservation=Beneficiary
2	preserve			honey					nom preservation «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

The presence of alcohol in substantial quantities, produced by the fermentation within the hive

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 presence	det
2	presence	presence	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 alcohol	case
4	alcohol	alcohol	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 presence	nmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 quantities	case
6	substantial	substantial	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 quantities	amod
7	quantities	quantity	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 presence	nmod
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 produced	punct
9	produced	produce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 quantities	acl
10	by	by	ADP	_	12 fermentation	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 fermentation	det
12	fermentation	fermentation	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 produced	obl
13	within	within	ADP	_	15 hive	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 hive	det
15	hive	hive	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 produced	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	produce	participle		substantial quantities not said here				by the fermentation; within the hive	vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 2

The addition of salt by the bees

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 addition	det
2	addition	addition	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 salt	case
4	salt	salt	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 addition	nmod
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 bees	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 bees	det
7	bees	bee	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 addition	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Its low water content and slight acidity, which prevent the growth of microorganisms

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 content	nmod:poss
2	low	low	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 content	amod
3	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 content	compound
4	content	content	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 prevent	nsubj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 acidity	cc
6	slight	slight	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 acidity	amod
7	acidity	acidity	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 content	conj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 prevent	punct
9	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 prevent	nsubj
10	prevent	prevent	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 growth	det
12	growth	growth	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 prevent	obj
13	of	of	ADP	_	14 microorganisms	case
14	microorganisms	microorganism	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 growth	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prevent	present	Its low water content and slight acidity	the growth of microorganisms					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer growth=Theme
2	grow		microorganisms						nom growth «process intransitive»: of=agent

Option 4

Its storage invariably in sealed vessels of gold

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 storage	nmod:poss
2	storage	storage	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	2 storage	advmod
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 vessels	case
5	sealed	seal	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 vessels	amod
6	vessels	vessel	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 storage	nmod
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 gold	case
8	gold	gold	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 vessels	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	seal	participle							vn tape-22.4 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient
2	store		Its = it			sealed vessels of gold			nom storage «act transitive»: poss=agent in=place

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/289-food-from-around-the-world-how-crops-travelled-the-globe/e3/