Test 9 · ★★★ · Bees, worms and soil: the hidden helpers of our food

Why could spraying a field against aphids end up making the aphid problem worse?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: aphids · What happens: spray, end up, make · To what, where: field, aphid problem

This is test 9 · ★★★ 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	3 spraying	advmod
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 spraying	aux
3	spraying	spray	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 field	det
5	field	field	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 spraying	obj
6	against	against	SCONJ	_	8 end	mark
7	aphids	aphid	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 end	nsubj
8	end	end	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 spraying	advcl
9	up	up	ADP	_	8 end	compound:prt
10	making	make	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 end	xcomp
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 problem	det
12	aphid	aphid	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 problem	compound
13	problem	problem	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 making	obj
14	worse	bad	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	10 making	xcomp
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 spraying	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	spray	could		a field		vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent field=Theme
2	end up	present	aphids			tree rules
3	make	gerund	aphids not said here	the aphid problem	bad property	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset problem=Product

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 right answer

The spray may kill the ladybirds that eat the aphids

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 spray	det
2	spray	spray	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 kill	nsubj
3	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 kill	aux
4	kill	kill	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 ladybirds	det
6	ladybirds	ladybird	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 kill	obj
7	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 eat	nsubj
8	eat	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 ladybirds	acl:relcl
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 aphids	det
10	aphids	aphid	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 eat	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	kill	may	the spray	the ladybirds					vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent ladybird=Theme
2	eat	present	the ladybirds	the aphids					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent aphid=Patient

Option 2

Aphids love the smell of the spray and fly in from miles around

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Aphids	aphid	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 love	nsubj
2	love	love	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 smell	det
4	smell	smell	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 love	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 spray	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 spray	det
7	spray	spray	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 smell	nmod
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 fly	cc
9	fly	fly	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 love	conj
10	in	in	ADV	_	9 fly	advmod
11	from	from	ADP	_	12 miles	case
12	miles	mile	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 fly	obl
13	around	around	ADV	_	9 fly	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	love	present	Aphids	the smell of the spray		vn admire-31.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer smell=Stimulus
2	fly in	infinitive	Aphids not said here		from miles; around property	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from mile=Trajectory
3	smell		the spray			nom smell «cognition intransitive»: of=agent

Option 3

Sprays make the aphids grow bigger and hungrier

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sprays	spray	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 make	nsubj
2	make	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 aphids	det
4	aphids	aphid	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 grow	nsubj
5	grow	grow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 make	xcomp
6	bigger	big	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	2 make	xcomp
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 hungrier	cc
8	hungrier	hungry	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	6 bigger	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present	Sprays					big property	tree rules
2	grow	present	the aphids						vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

Ladybirds eat the spray and grow

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ladybirds	ladybird	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 eat	nsubj
2	eat	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 spray	det
4	spray	spray	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 eat	obj
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 grow	cc
6	grow	grow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 eat	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	eat	present	Ladybirds	the spray					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent spray=Patient
2	grow	present	Ladybirds not said here						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/291-bees-worms-and-soil-the-hidden-helpers-of-our-food/t9/