Exam question 4 · The garden in autumn: colours, conkers, webs and buried nuts

Ascertain the contribution of the jay to the regeneration of oak woodland.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, contribute, regenerate · To what, where: contribution, jay, oak woodland

This is exam question 4 of lesson 335 «The garden in autumn: colours, conkers, webs and buried nuts» 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 contribution	det
3	contribution	contribution	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 jay	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 jay	det
6	jay	jay	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 contribution	nmod
7	to	to	ADP	_	9 regeneration	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 regeneration	det
9	regeneration	regeneration	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 jay	nmod
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 woodland	case
11	oak	oak	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 woodland	compound
12	woodland	woodland	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 regeneration	nmod
13	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the contribution of the jay to the regeneration of oak woodland	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent contribution=Topic
2	contribute			the jay to the regeneration of oak woodland	nom contribution «act transitive»: of=patient
3	regenerate			oak woodland	nom regeneration «process 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

Jays fertilise the soil with acorn shells

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Jays	jay	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 fertilise	nsubj
2	fertilise	fertilise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 soil	det
4	soil	soil	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 fertilise	obj
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 shells	case
6	acorn	acorn	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 shells	compound
7	shells	shell	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 fertilise	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fertilise	present	Jays	the soil				with acorn shells	tree rules

Option 2

Jays prune the branches of mature oaks

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Jays	jay	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 prune	nsubj
2	prune	prune	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 branches	det
4	branches	branch	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 prune	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 oaks	case
6	mature	mature	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 oaks	amod
7	oaks	oak	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 branches	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prune	present	Jays	the branches of mature oaks					vn carve-21.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent branch=Patient

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Jays consume all acorns before germination can occur, and thereby prevent regeneration

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Jays	jay	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 consume	nsubj
2	consume	consume	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	4 acorns	det
4	acorns	acorn	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 consume	obj
5	before	before	SCONJ	_	8 occur	mark
6	germination	germination	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 occur	nsubj
7	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 occur	aux
8	occur	occur	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 consume	advcl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 prevent	punct
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 prevent	cc
11	thereby	thereby	ADV	_	12 prevent	advmod
12	prevent	prevent	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 consume	conj
13	regeneration	regeneration	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 prevent	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	consume	present	Jays	all acorns		vn consume-66 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent acorn=Asset
2	occur	can	germination			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	prevent	infinitive	Jays not said here	regeneration	thereby property	vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer regeneration=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Acorns cached and subsequently not recovered by the bird may germinate as new oaks

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Acorns	acorn	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 cached	nsubj
2	cached	cache	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 recovered	cc
4	subsequently	subsequently	ADV	_	6 recovered	advmod
5	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	6 recovered	advmod
6	recovered	recover	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 cached	conj
7	by	by	SCONJ	_	11 germinate	mark
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 bird	det
9	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 germinate	nsubj
10	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 germinate	aux
11	germinate	germinate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 recovered	advcl
12	as	as	ADP	_	14 oaks	case
13	new	new	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 oaks	amod
14	oaks	oak	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 germinate	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	cache	past	Acorns		tree rules
2	not recover	participle	Acorns not said here	subsequently property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
3	germinate	may	the bird	as new oaks	vn entity_specific_cos-45.5 «NP.patient V»: agent=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.

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