Exam question 4 · Ice Age Ukraine and Europe: cave bears, cave lions, the Si…

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the causes of the disappearance of the mammoth-steppe fauna?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: steppe fauna · What happens: follow, characteris, cause, disappear · To what, where: causes, disappearance

This is exam question 4 of lesson 385 «Ice Age Ukraine and Europe: cave bears, cave lions, the Siberian unicorn and mammoth-bone houses» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 causes	det
10	causes	cause	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 disappearance	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 disappearance	det
13	disappearance	disappearance	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 causes	nmod
14	of	of	ADP	_	19 fauna	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 fauna	det
16	mammoth	mammoth	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 steppe	compound
17	-	-	PUNCT	_	16 mammoth	punct
18	steppe	steppe	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 fauna	compound
19	fauna	fauna	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 disappearance	nmod
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the causes of the disappearance of the steppe fauna	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	cause			the disappearance of the steppe fauna		nom cause «event transitive»: of=patient
4	disappear		the steppe fauna			nom disappearance «act intransitive»: of=agent

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 · ← Mova's choice

Exclusively a sudden worldwide flood

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Exclusively	exclusively	ADV	_	5 flood	advmod
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 flood	det
3	sudden	sudden	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 flood	amod
4	worldwide	worldwide	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 flood	amod
5	flood	flood	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Rapid warming, the spread of forest and human hunting, in disputed proportions

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Rapid	rapid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 warming	amod
2	warming	warming	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 spread	punct
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 spread	det
5	spread	spread	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 warming	conj
6	of	of	ADP	_	7 forest	case
7	forest	forest	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 spread	nmod
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 hunting	cc
9	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 hunting	amod
10	hunting	hunting	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 warming	conj
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 proportions	punct
12	in	in	ADP	_	14 proportions	case
13	disputed	dispute	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	14 proportions	amod
14	proportions	proportion	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 warming	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dispute	participle							vn battle-36.4 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	spread			forest					nom spread «event transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

Exclusively the impact of a single meteorite

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Exclusively	exclusively	ADV	_	3 impact	advmod
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 impact	det
3	impact	impact	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 meteorite	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 meteorite	det
6	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 meteorite	amod
7	meteorite	meteorite	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 impact	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	impact			a single meteorite					nom impact «event transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

Exclusively a disease brought by migrating birds from the southern continents

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Exclusively	exclusively	ADV	_	3 disease	advmod
2	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 disease	det
3	disease	disease	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	brought	bring	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 disease	acl
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 birds	case
6	migrating	migrate	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 birds	amod
7	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 brought	obl:agent
8	from	from	ADP	_	11 continents	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 continents	det
10	southern	southern	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 continents	amod
11	continents	continent	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 brought	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	bring	participle		a disease not said here		the southern continents			vn bring-11.3-1 «NP V NP PP.initial_location»: agent=Agent from continent=Initial_Location
2	migrate	gerund							tree rules

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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