Test 10 · Park trees: telling oaks, maples, chestnuts, birches, lime…

Why might birches be among the first trees to grow on open land?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: birches · What happens: be, grow · To what, where: open land

This is test 10 of lesson 339 «Park trees: telling oaks, maples, chestnuts, birches, limes and willows apart» 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	root	root
2	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	1 Why	aux
3	birches	birch	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 trees	nsubj
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	8 trees	cop
5	among	among	ADP	_	8 trees	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 trees	det
7	first	first	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	8 trees	amod
8	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 might	nsubj
9	to	to	PART	_	10 grow	mark
10	grow	grow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 trees	acl
11	on	on	ADP	_	13 land	case
12	open	open	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 land	amod
13	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 grow	obl
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 Why	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	infinitive	birches					among the first trees	tree rules
2	grow	to-infinitive				open land			vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on land=Location

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

They grow from acorns buried by jays

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 grow	nsubj
2	grow	grow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	from	from	ADP	_	4 acorns	case
4	acorns	acorn	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 grow	obl
5	buried	bury	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 acorns	acl
6	by	by	ADP	_	7 jays	case
7	jays	jay	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 buried	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	present	They					from acorns	vn grow-26.2.1 «NP.product V PP.patient»: agent=Product from acorn=Patient
2	bury	participle		acorns not said here				by jays	vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent by jay=Destination

Option 2

People plant every birch by hand

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	People	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 plant	nsubj
2	plant	plant	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	4 birch	det
4	birch	birch	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 plant	obj
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 hand	case
6	hand	hand	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 plant	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	plant	present	People	every birch				by hand	vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent birch=Theme by hand=Destination

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Their light seeds spread far and they grow well in the open

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 seeds	nmod:poss
2	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 seeds	compound
3	seeds	seed	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 spread	nsubj
4	spread	spread	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	4 spread	advmod
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 grow	cc
7	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 grow	nsubj
8	grow	grow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 spread	conj
9	well	well	ADV	Degree=Pos	8 grow	advmod
10	in	in	ADP	_	12 open	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 open	det
12	open	open	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 grow	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	spread	present	Their light seeds					far property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	grow	present	seeds = seed			the open		well property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in open=Location

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

They can only grow under other trees

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 grow	nsubj
2	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 grow	aux
3	only	only	ADV	_	4 grow	advmod
4	grow	grow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	under	under	ADP	_	7 trees	case
6	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 trees	amod
7	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 grow	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	can	They			other trees			vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme under tree=Location

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/339-park-trees-telling-oaks-maples-chestnuts-birches-limes-and-willows-apart/t10/