Test 10 · ★ · Roots, stems and leaves

Why do many trees drop their leaves in winter instead of keeping them?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: many trees · What happens: do, drop, keep · To what, where: leaves

This is test 10 · ★ of lesson 57 «Roots, stems and leaves» 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 do	advmod
2	do	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 drop	advcl
3	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 trees	amod
4	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 drop	nsubj
5	drop	drop	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
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 drop	obj
8	in	in	ADP	_	9 winter	case
9	winter	winter	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 drop	obl
10	instead	instead	ADV	ExtPos=SCONJ	12 keeping	mark
11	of	of	ADP	_	10 instead	fixed
12	keeping	keep	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	5 drop	advcl
13	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 keeping	obj
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 drop	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	roles by
1	do	present	many trees not said here			vn act-114-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	drop	present	many trees	trees's leaves	winter	vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent leaf=Theme
3	keep	gerund	many trees not said here	leaves = leaf		vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=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

The leaves get too heavy with snow to keep growing, so they break off the twigs

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 leaves	det
2	leaves	leaf	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 get	nsubj
3	get	get	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	too	too	ADV	_	5 heavy	advmod
5	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 get	xcomp
6	with	with	ADP	_	7 snow	case
7	snow	snow	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 get	obl
8	to	to	PART	_	9 keep	mark
9	keep	keep	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 get	advcl
10	growing	grow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	9 keep	xcomp
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 break	punct
12	so	so	ADV	_	14 break	advmod
13	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 break	nsubj
14	break	break	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 get	conj
15	off	off	ADP	_	17 twigs	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 twigs	det
17	twigs	twig	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 break	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	get	present	the leaves		with snow; heavy property	vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer
2	keep	to-infinitive	the leaves not said here			tree rules
3	grow	gerund	the leaves not said here			vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
4	break off	present	leaves = leaf	the twigs		vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer twig=Patient

Option 2

Birds pull them off for nests

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 pull	nsubj
2	pull	pull	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 pull	obj
4	off	off	ADP	_	2 pull	compound:prt
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 nests	case
6	nests	nest	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 pull	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pull off	present	Birds	them = they				for nests	vn complete-55.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Eventuality

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

Thin leaves would be hurt by frost and lose water when the ground freezes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Thin	thin	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 leaves	amod
2	leaves	leaf	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 hurt	nsubj:pass
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 hurt	aux
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 hurt	aux:pass
5	hurt	hurt	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	by	by	ADP	_	7 frost	case
7	frost	frost	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 hurt	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 lose	cc
9	lose	lose	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 hurt	conj
10	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 lose	obj
11	when	when	SCONJ	_	14 freezes	mark
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 ground	det
13	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 freezes	nsubj
14	freezes	freeze	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 lose	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	hurt	would · passive	frost	Thin leaves	vn hurt-40.8.3-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer subject=Patient
2	lose	present	frost not said here	water	vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent water=Eventuality
3	freeze	present	the ground		vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 4

Trees get bored of the same leaves

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 get	nsubj
2	get	get	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	bored	bored	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 get	xcomp
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 leaves	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 leaves	det
6	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 leaves	amod
7	leaves	leaf	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 bored	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	get	present	Trees					bored property	vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Experiencer

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/57-roots-stems-and-leaves/t10/