Exam question 2 · Poisonous plants to stay away from: berries, foxglove, yew…

Identify the principal reason for which numerous plants contain poisonous substances.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, numerous plants · What happens: identify, contain · To what, where: principal reason, poisonous substances

This is exam question 2 of lesson 392 «Poisonous plants to stay away from: berries, foxglove, yew and nightshade» 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	9 contain	obl
7	numerous	numerous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 plants	amod
8	plants	plant	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 contain	nsubj
9	contain	contain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl:relcl
10	poisonous	poisonous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 substances	amod
11	substances	substance	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 contain	obj
12	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	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	contain	present	numerous plants	poisonous substances				for the principal reason	vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot substance=Theme

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

To preserve the colour of their flowers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 preserve	mark
2	preserve	preserve	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 colour	det
4	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 preserve	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 flowers	case
6	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 flowers	nmod:poss
7	flowers	flower	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 colour	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	preserve	to-infinitive		the colour of their flowers					vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent colour=Beneficiary

Option 2

To accelerate the growth of their stems

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 accelerate	mark
2	accelerate	accelerate	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 growth	det
4	growth	growth	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 accelerate	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 stems	case
6	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 stems	nmod:poss
7	stems	stem	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 growth	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	accelerate	to-infinitive		the growth of their stems	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent growth=Patient
2	grow		their stems		nom growth «process intransitive»: of=agent
3	stem		their = they		nom stem «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

To deter animals from consuming their leaves and seeds

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 deter	mark
2	deter	deter	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 deter	obj
4	from	from	SCONJ	_	5 consuming	mark
5	consuming	consume	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 deter	advcl
6	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 leaves	nmod:poss
7	leaves	leaf	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 consuming	obj
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 seeds	cc
9	seeds	seed	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 leaves	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	deter	to-infinitive		animals					vn discourage-64.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer animal=Eventuality
2	consume	gerund		animals's leaves and seeds					vn consume-66 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leaf=Asset

Option 4

To attract animals to consume them in the greatest possible quantity

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 attract	mark
2	attract	attract	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 attract	obj
4	to	to	PART	_	5 consume	mark
5	consume	consume	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 attract	xcomp
6	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 consume	obj
7	in	in	ADP	_	11 quantity	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 quantity	det
9	greatest	great	ADJ	Degree=Sup	11 quantity	amod
10	possible	possible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 quantity	amod
11	quantity	quantity	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 consume	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	attract	to-infinitive		animals					tree rules
2	consume	to-infinitive		animals = animal		the greatest possible quantity			vn consume-66 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Asset

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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