Test 9 · ★ · Rice, maize and potatoes: the plants that feed the world

How did farmers without science books turn a scruffy wild grass into big soft corn cobs?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: science books · What happens: do, turn · To what, where: farmers, scruffy wild grass, big soft corn cobs

This is test 9 · ★ of lesson 345 «Rice, maize and potatoes: the plants that feed the world» 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	How	how	ADV	PronType=Int	2 did	advmod
2	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	farmers	farmer	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 did	obj
4	without	without	SCONJ	_	7 turn	mark
5	science	science	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 books	compound
6	books	book	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 turn	nsubj
7	turn	turn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 did	advcl
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 grass	det
9	scruffy	scruffy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 grass	amod
10	wild	wild	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 grass	amod
11	grass	grass	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 turn	obj
12	into	into	ADP	_	16 cobs	case
13	big	big	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 cobs	amod
14	soft	soft	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 cobs	amod
15	corn	corn	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 cobs	compound
16	cobs	cob	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 turn	obl
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 did	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	past		farmers					vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent farmer=Eventuality
2	turn	present	science books	a scruffy wild grass		big soft corn cobs			vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: agent=Agent grass=Theme into cob=Trajectory

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 poured special magic water on the wild grass every morning until it grew cobs

The tree, 15 words

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 poured	nsubj
2	poured	pour	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	special	special	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 water	amod
4	magic	magic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 water	amod
5	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 poured	obj
6	on	on	ADP	_	9 grass	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 grass	det
8	wild	wild	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 grass	amod
9	grass	grass	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 poured	obl
10	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	11 morning	det
11	morning	morning	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 poured	obl:unmarked
12	until	until	SCONJ	_	14 grew	mark
13	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 grew	nsubj
14	grew	grow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 poured	advcl
15	cobs	cob	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 grew	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pour	past	They	special magic water		the wild grass	morning		vn preparing-26.3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent water=Patient
2	grow	past	water	cobs					vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location cob=Theme

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

They kept seeds from their best plants year after year for thousands of years

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 kept	nsubj
2	kept	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	seeds	seed	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 kept	obj
4	from	from	ADP	_	8 year	case
5	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 year	nmod:poss
6	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	7 plants	amod
7	plants	plant	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 year	compound
8	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 kept	obl
9	after	after	ADP	_	10 year	case
10	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 year	nmod
11	for	for	ADP	_	12 thousands	case
12	thousands	thousand	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 kept	obl
13	of	of	ADP	_	14 years	case
14	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 thousands	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	past	They	seeds			year	for thousands of years	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent seed=Theme

Option 3

They crossed it with apple 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	2 crossed	nsubj
2	crossed	cross	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 crossed	obj
4	with	with	ADP	_	6 trees	case
5	apple	apple	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 trees	compound
6	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 crossed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cross	past	They	it				with apple trees	vn crane-40.3.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Patient

Option 4

A single farmer did it in one summer

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 farmer	det
2	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 farmer	amod
3	farmer	farmer	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	nsubj
4	did	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 did	obj
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 summer	case
7	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	8 summer	nummod
8	summer	summer	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 did	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	past	a single farmer	it			summer		vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Eventuality

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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