Test 8 · How plants grow: seeds, light, water and air

Why does a potato in a dark cupboard grow long pale shoots?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · What happens: do, grow · To what, where: potato, dark cupboard, long pale shoots

This is test 8 of lesson 56 «How plants grow: seeds, light, water and air» 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	2 does	advmod
2	does	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 grow	advcl
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 potato	det
4	potato	potato	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 does	obj
5	in	in	ADP	_	8 cupboard	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 cupboard	det
7	dark	dark	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 cupboard	amod
8	cupboard	cupboard	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 does	obl
9	grow	grow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 shoots	amod
11	pale	pale	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 shoots	amod
12	shoots	shoot	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 grow	obj
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	9 grow	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	do	present		a potato		a dark cupboard			vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent potato=Eventuality
2	grow	present		long pale shoots					vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location shoot=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

Potatoes always grow pale

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Potatoes	potato	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 grow	nsubj
2	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	3 grow	advmod
3	grow	grow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	pale	pale	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 grow	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	present	Potatoes					always, pale property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

It is trying to reach the other potatoes in the bag to share their water

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 trying	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 trying	aux
3	trying	try	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 reach	mark
5	reach	reach	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 trying	xcomp
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 potatoes	det
7	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 potatoes	amod
8	potatoes	potato	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 reach	obj
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 bag	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 bag	det
11	bag	bag	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 potatoes	nmod
12	to	to	PART	_	13 share	mark
13	share	share	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 trying	advcl
14	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 water	nmod:poss
15	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 share	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	try	present · progressive	It			vn try-61.1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality
2	reach not said to happen	to-infinitive		the other potatoes	the bag	vn body_motion-49.2-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Agent potato=Theme
3	share	to-infinitive		potatoes's water		tree rules

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

The shoots stretch to look for light and cannot turn green

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 shoots	det
2	shoots	shoot	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 stretch	nsubj
3	stretch	stretch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 look	mark
5	look	look	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 stretch	xcomp
6	for	for	ADP	_	7 light	case
7	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 look	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 turn	cc
9	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 turn	aux
10	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	11 turn	advmod
11	turn	turn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 look	conj
12	green	green	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 turn	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	other	roles by
1	stretch	present	the shoots		tree rules
2	look	to-infinitive	the shoots not said here	for light	vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent for light=Theme
3	not turn	can	the shoots not said here	green property	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

The cupboard is too cold

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cupboard	det
2	cupboard	cupboard	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 cold	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 cold	cop
4	too	too	ADV	_	5 cold	advmod
5	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the cupboard					cold property	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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/56-how-plants-grow/t8/