Test 7 · ★ · The desert: living with little water

What would happen to desert flowers if it never rained heavily for ten years?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: it · What happens: happen, desert, not rain · To what, where: flowers

This is test 7 · ★ of lesson 5 «The desert: living with little water» 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	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 desert	mark
5	desert	desert	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 happen	xcomp
6	flowers	flower	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 desert	obj
7	if	if	SCONJ	_	10 rained	mark
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 rained	nsubj
9	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	10 rained	advmod
10	rained	rain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 desert	advcl
11	heavily	heavily	ADV	_	10 rained	advmod
12	for	for	ADP	_	14 years	case
13	ten	ten	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	14 years	nummod
14	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 rained	obl
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would					tree rules
2	desert	to-infinitive		flowers			vn leave-51.2-1 «NP V NP.initial_location»: agent=Theme flower=Source
3	not rain a condition, not said to happen	past	it		year	heavily property	vn weather-57 «It V PP.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

They would grow anyway without water

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	3 grow	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 grow	aux
3	grow	grow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	anyway	anyway	ADV	_	3 grow	advmod
5	without	without	ADP	_	6 water	case
6	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 grow	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	would	They					without water; anyway property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

The seeds would sprout every year in the dry sand and flower in the heat

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 seeds	det
2	seeds	seed	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 sprout	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 sprout	aux
4	sprout	sprout	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	6 year	det
6	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 sprout	obj
7	in	in	ADP	_	10 sand	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 sand	det
9	dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 sand	amod
10	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 sprout	obl
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 flower	cc
12	flower	flower	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 sand	conj
13	in	in	ADP	_	15 heat	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 heat	det
15	heat	heat	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 sprout	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sprout	would	the seeds			the dry sand and flower	year	in the heat	vn entity_specific_modes_being-47.2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in sand=Location

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Their seeds could wait in the soil until a good rain came

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 seeds	nmod:poss
2	seeds	seed	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 wait	nsubj
3	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 wait	aux
4	wait	wait	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 soil	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 soil	det
7	soil	soil	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 wait	obl
8	until	until	SCONJ	_	12 came	mark
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 rain	det
10	good	good	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 rain	amod
11	rain	rain	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 came	nsubj
12	came	come	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 wait	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wait	could	Their seeds			the soil			vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in soil=Location
2	come	past	a good rain						vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

They would all turn into cactuses

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	4 turn	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 turn	aux
3	all	all	ADV	_	4 turn	advmod
4	turn	turn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	into	into	ADP	_	6 cactuses	case
6	cactuses	cactuse	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 turn	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	turn	would	They			cactuses		all property	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into cactuse=Trajectory

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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/5-the-desert/t7/