Exam question 4 · Poisonous plants to stay away from: berries, foxglove, yew…

Ascertain the reason for which potatoes are customarily stored in darkness.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, store · To what, where: reason, potatoes, darkness

This is exam question 4 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 stored	obl
6	potatoes	potato	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 stored	nsubj:pass
7	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 stored	aux:pass
8	customarily	customarily	ADV	_	9 stored	advmod
9	stored	store	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 reason	acl:relcl
10	in	in	ADP	_	11 darkness	case
11	darkness	darkness	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 stored	obl
12	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the reason					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	store	present · passive		potatoes		darkness		for the reason; customarily property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: subject=Theme in darkness=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

Darkness causes them to double in size

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Darkness	darkness	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 causes	nsubj
2	causes	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 causes	obj
4	to	to	PART	_	5 double	mark
5	double	double	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 causes	xcomp
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 size	case
7	size	size	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 double	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cause	present	Darkness	them = they					tree rules
2	double	to-infinitive	them = they not said here			size			vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

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

Exposure to light causes them to turn green and to produce a greater quantity of poison

The tree, 16 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	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 causes	obj
6	to	to	PART	_	7 turn	mark
7	turn	turn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 causes	xcomp
8	green	green	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 turn	xcomp
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 produce	cc
10	to	to	PART	_	11 produce	mark
11	produce	produce	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 turn	conj
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 quantity	det
13	greater	great	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	14 quantity	amod
14	quantity	quantity	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 produce	obj
15	of	of	ADP	_	16 poison	case
16	poison	poison	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 quantity	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	cause	present	Exposure to light	them = they		tree rules
2	turn	to-infinitive	them = they not said here		green property	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme
3	produce	to-infinitive	them = they not said here	a greater quantity of poison		vn create-26.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent quantity=Result

Option 3

Exposure to light renders them excessively sweet and unfit for the preparation of any meal

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Exposure	exposure	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	to	to	ADP	_	4 renders	case
3	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 renders	compound
4	renders	render	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Exposure	nmod
5	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 sweet	nsubj
6	excessively	excessively	ADV	_	7 sweet	advmod
7	sweet	sweet	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 renders	acl:relcl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 unfit	cc
9	unfit	unfit	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 sweet	conj
10	for	for	ADP	_	12 preparation	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 preparation	det
12	preparation	preparation	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 sweet	obl
13	of	of	ADP	_	15 meal	case
14	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	15 meal	det
15	meal	meal	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 preparation	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prepare			any meal					nom preparation «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

Darkness prevents their consumption by birds

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	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 consumption	nmod:poss
4	consumption	consumption	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 prevents	obj
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 birds	case
6	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 prevents	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prevent	present	Darkness	their consumption				by birds	vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer consumption=Theme
2	consume		their = they						nom consumption «act transitive»: poss=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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