Exam question 2 · The vegetable patch: peas, potatoes, tomatoes and slugs

Identify the principal reason for which potatoes ought to be stored in the absence of light.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, store, absent · To what, where: principal reason, potatoes, absence, light

This is exam question 2 of lesson 338 «The vegetable patch: peas, potatoes, tomatoes and slugs» 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	Identify	identify	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 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 stored	obl
7	potatoes	potato	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 stored	nsubj:pass
8	ought	ought	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 stored	aux
9	to	to	PART	_	11 stored	mark
10	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	11 stored	aux:pass
11	stored	store	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl:relcl
12	in	in	ADP	_	14 absence	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 absence	det
14	absence	absence	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 stored	obl
15	of	of	ADP	_	16 light	case
16	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 absence	nmod
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	store	ought · passive	you not said here	potatoes	the absence of light	for the principal reason	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Theme in absence=Location
3	absent			light			nom absence «state 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

Darkness increases the size of stored potatoes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Darkness	darkness	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 increases	nsubj
2	increases	increase	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 size	det
4	size	size	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 increases	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 potatoes	case
6	stored	store	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 potatoes	amod
7	potatoes	potato	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 size	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	increase	present	Darkness	the size of stored potatoes					vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Causer size=Patient
2	store	participle							vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Exposure to light causes the formation of a bitter poison, visible as a green colour

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Exposure	exposure	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 causes	nsubj
2	to	to	ADP	_	3 light	case
3	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Exposure	nmod
4	causes	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 formation	det
6	formation	formation	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 causes	obj
7	of	of	ADP	_	10 poison	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 poison	det
9	bitter	bitter	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 poison	amod
10	poison	poison	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 formation	nmod
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 visible	punct
12	visible	visible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 formation	conj
13	as	as	ADP	_	16 colour	case
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 colour	det
15	green	green	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 colour	amod
16	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 visible	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cause	present	Exposure to light	the formation of a bitter poison					vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition formation=Patient

Option 3

Exposure to light causes the potatoes to liquefy

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Exposure	exposure	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 causes	nsubj
2	to	to	ADP	_	3 light	case
3	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Exposure	nmod
4	causes	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 potatoes	det
6	potatoes	potato	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 causes	obj
7	to	to	PART	_	8 liquefy	mark
8	liquefy	liquefy	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 causes	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cause	present	Exposure to light	the potatoes					tree rules
2	liquefy	to-infinitive	the potatoes not said here						vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

Darkness prevents the potatoes from being consumed by bees

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Darkness	darkness	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 prevents	nsubj
2	prevents	prevent	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 potatoes	det
4	potatoes	potato	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 prevents	obj
5	from	from	SCONJ	_	7 consumed	mark
6	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	7 consumed	aux:pass
7	consumed	consume	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 prevents	advcl
8	by	by	ADP	_	9 bees	case
9	bees	bee	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 consumed	obl:agent

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prevent	present	Darkness	the potatoes					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer potato=Theme
2	consume	gerund · passive	bees						vn consume-66 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

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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