Exam question 4 · The garden in spring: buds, frogspawn, queen bumblebees an…

Ascertain the advantage obtained by snowdrops and daffodils in flowering before the trees are in leaf.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, trees · What happens: ascertain, obtain, be · To what, where: advantage, flowering, leaf

This is exam question 4 of lesson 333 «The garden in spring: buds, frogspawn, queen bumblebees and nesting birds» 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 advantage	det
3	advantage	advantage	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	obtained	obtain	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 advantage	acl
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 snowdrops	case
6	snowdrops	snowdrop	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 obtained	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 daffodils	cc
8	daffodils	daffodil	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 snowdrops	conj
9	in	in	ADP	_	10 flowering	case
10	flowering	flowering	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obl
11	before	before	SCONJ	_	16 leaf	mark
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 trees	det
13	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 leaf	nsubj
14	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 leaf	cop
15	in	in	ADP	_	16 leaf	case
16	leaf	leaf	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	advcl
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the advantage	flowering		vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent advantage=Topic
2	obtain	participle		the advantage not said here		by snowdrops and daffodils	vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset
3	is	present	the trees		leaf		tree rules

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

The avoidance of all insect visitors

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 avoidance	det
2	avoidance	avoidance	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 visitors	case
4	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	6 visitors	det
5	insect	insect	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 visitors	compound
6	visitors	visitor	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 avoidance	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	avoid			all insect visitors					nom avoidance «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

The reception of sunlight before the ground is shaded by the canopy

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 reception	det
2	reception	reception	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 shaded	nsubj:pass
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 sunlight	case
4	sunlight	sunlight	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reception	nmod
5	before	before	ADP	_	7 ground	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 ground	det
7	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reception	nmod
8	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 shaded	aux:pass
9	shaded	shade	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
10	by	by	ADP	_	12 canopy	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 canopy	det
12	canopy	canopy	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 shaded	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	shade	present · passive	the canopy	the reception of sunlight before the ground					vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Beneficiary
2	receive			sunlight			before the ground		nom reception «communication transitive»: of=patient before=obl

Option 3

The absorption of water from the snow alone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 absorption	det
2	absorption	absorption	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 water	case
4	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 absorption	nmod
5	from	from	ADP	_	7 snow	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 snow	det
7	snow	snow	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 absorption	nmod
8	alone	alone	ADV	_	2 absorption	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	absorb			water		the snow			nom absorption «process transitive»: of=patient from=place

Option 4

The protection of the bulbs from frost by means of the flowers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 protection	det
2	protection	protection	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 means	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 bulbs	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 bulbs	det
5	bulbs	bulb	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 protection	nmod
6	from	from	ADP	_	7 frost	case
7	frost	frost	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 bulbs	nmod
8	by	by	ADP	_	7 frost	nmod
9	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 flowers	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 flowers	det
12	flowers	flower	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 means	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present	the protection of the bulbs from frost					of the flowers	vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
2	protect			the bulbs from frost					nom protection «act transitive»: of=patient

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/333-the-garden-in-spring-buds-frogspawn-queen-bumblebees-and-nesting-birds/e4/