Test 6 · ★ · Poo, wee and smells: rabbits that eat their droppings, dun…

What might happen to fish if there were far fewer whales?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: fewer whales · What happens: happen, be

This is test 6 · ★ of lesson 398 «Poo, wee and smells: rabbits that eat their droppings, dung beetles and the smelliest animals» 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 happen	nsubj
2	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	5 fish	case
5	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 happen	obl
6	if	if	SCONJ	_	8 were	mark
7	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	8 were	expl
8	were	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
9	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	10 fewer	advmod
10	fewer	few	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	11 whales	amod
11	whales	whale	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 were	nsubj
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	might						to fish	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	be a condition, not said to happen	past	fewer whales			there			vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=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

Fish would have to eat whale poo themselves

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 have	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 have	aux
3	have	have	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 eat	mark
5	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 have	xcomp
6	whale	whale	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 poo	compound
7	poo	poo	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 eat	obj
8	themselves	themselves	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Emp Reflex=Yes	7 poo	nmod:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	would	Fish						tree rules
2	eat	to-infinitive	Fish not said here	whale poo Fish					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent poo=Patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

There might be fewer fish, because whale poo feeds the tiny plants at the bottom of the food chain

The tree, 19 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	There	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	3 be	expl
2	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 be	aux
3	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	10 feeds	cop
4	fewer	few	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	5 fish	amod
5	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 be	nsubj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 feeds	punct
7	because	because	SCONJ	_	10 feeds	mark
8	whale	whale	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 poo	compound
9	poo	poo	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 feeds	nsubj
10	feeds	feed	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 plants	det
12	tiny	tiny	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 plants	amod
13	plants	plant	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 feeds	obj
14	at	at	ADP	_	16 bottom	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 bottom	det
16	bottom	bottom	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 feeds	obl
17	of	of	ADP	_	20 chain	case
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	20 chain	det
19	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 chain	compound
20	chain	chain	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 bottom	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	infinitive	whale poo			the bottom of the food chain		feed property	tree rules

Option 3

There would be many more fish, because whales eat almost all of the fish in the sea every year

The tree, 19 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	There	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	3 be	expl
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 be	aux
3	be	be	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 fish	amod
5	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	6 fish	amod
6	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 be	nsubj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 eat	punct
8	because	because	SCONJ	_	10 eat	mark
9	whales	whale	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 eat	nsubj
10	eat	eat	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 be	parataxis
11	almost	almost	ADV	_	12 all	advmod
12	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	10 eat	obj
13	of	of	ADP	_	15 fish	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 fish	det
15	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 all	nmod
16	in	in	ADP	_	18 sea	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	18 sea	det
18	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 fish	nmod
19	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	20 year	det
20	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 eat	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	be	would	many more fish			there			vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	eat	present	whales	all			year		vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent all=Patient

Option 4

Nothing, whales have no effect

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	3 whales	compound
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Nothing	punct
3	whales	whale	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 have	nsubj
4	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	6 effect	det
6	effect	effect	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 have	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	Nothing whales	no effect					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent effect=Patient

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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