Test 10 · ★★★ · Bees, worms and soil: the hidden helpers of our food

«dirt's just dirt, mate» What would a soil scientist say?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: soil scientist · What happens: say · To what, where: dirt · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 10 · ★★★ of lesson 291 «Bees, worms and soil: the hidden helpers of our food» 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	_	5 dirt	punct
2	dirt	dirt	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 dirt	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 dirt	case
4	just	just	ADV	_	5 dirt	advmod
5	dirt	dirt	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 mate	punct
7	mate	mate	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 dirt	conj
8	»	»	PUNCT	_	5 dirt	punct
9	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	14 say	obj
10	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	14 say	aux
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 scientist	det
12	soil	soil	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 scientist	compound
13	scientist	scientist	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 say	nsubj
14	say	say	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 dirt	acl:relcl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 dirt	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	would	a soil scientist	dirt's dirt and mate					vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent what=Topic

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

Only worms live in soil, and nothing smaller than a worm

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Only	only	ADV	_	2 worms	advmod
2	worms	worm	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 live	nsubj
3	live	live	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	5 soil	case
5	soil	soil	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 live	obl
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 nothing	punct
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 nothing	cc
8	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	3 live	parataxis
9	smaller	small	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	8 nothing	amod
10	than	than	ADP	_	12 worm	case
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 worm	det
12	worm	worm	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 smaller	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	live	present	worms			soil			vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in soil=Location

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

A handful holds more living things than there are people on Earth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 handful	det
2	handful	handful	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 holds	nsubj
3	holds	hold	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	6 things	amod
5	living	living	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 things	amod
6	things	thing	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 holds	obj
7	than	than	SCONJ	_	9 are	mark
8	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	9 are	expl
9	are	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 holds	advcl
10	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 are	nsubj
11	on	on	ADP	_	12 Earth	case
12	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 people	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hold	present	a handful	more living things					vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent thing=Theme
2	does	present	people on Earth			there			vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

Soil has no life in it at all during the winter months

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Soil	soil	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 has	nsubj
2	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 life	det
4	life	life	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 has	obj
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 it	case
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 life	nmod
7	at	at	ADP	_	8 all	case
8	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	4 life	nmod
9	during	during	ADP	_	12 months	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 months	det
11	winter	winter	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 months	compound
12	months	month	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 has	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	Soil	no life		life	month	at all	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent life=Patient

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

Soil is crushed stone and nothing else

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Soil	soil	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 stone	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 stone	cop
3	crushed	crush	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 stone	amod
4	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 nothing	cc
6	nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	4 stone	conj
7	else	else	ADV	_	6 nothing	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	crush	participle							vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V ADVP-Middle»: agent=Patient
2	is a	present	Soil	crushed stone					tree rules

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.

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