Test 12 · ★ · Roots, stems and leaves

Why would a giant water lily leaf need spikes on its underside?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: giant lily leaf · What happens: need · To what, where: spikes, underside

This is test 12 · ★ 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	8 need	advmod
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 need	aux
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 leaf	det
4	giant	giant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 leaf	amod
5	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 lily	compound
6	lily	lily	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 leaf	compound
7	leaf	leaf	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 need	nsubj
8	need	need	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	spikes	spike	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 need	obj
10	on	on	ADP	_	12 underside	case
11	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 underside	nmod:poss
12	underside	underside	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 spikes	nmod
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 need	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	need	would	a giant lily leaf	spikes		leaf's underside			vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot spike=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

To help it swim

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 help	mark
2	help	help	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 swim	advcl
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 help	obj
4	swim	swim	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	help	to-infinitive	you not said here	it					vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Beneficiary
2	swim	imperative	you not said here						vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

To hold it down to the bottom of the pond in a storm

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 hold	mark
2	hold	hold	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 hold	obj
4	down	down	ADP	_	2 hold	compound:prt
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 bottom	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 bottom	det
7	bottom	bottom	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 hold	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 pond	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 pond	det
10	pond	pond	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 bottom	nmod
11	in	in	ADP	_	13 storm	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	13 storm	det
13	storm	storm	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 hold	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hold down	to-infinitive		it		a storm		to the bottom of the pond	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent it=Theme in storm=Location

Option 3

To catch flies like a trap

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 catch	mark
2	catch	catch	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	flies	fly	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 catch	obj
4	like	like	ADP	_	6 trap	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 trap	det
6	trap	trap	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 catch	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	catch	to-infinitive		flies				like a trap	vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fly=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

To protect it from fish and other animals that would eat it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 protect	mark
2	protect	protect	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 protect	obj
4	from	from	ADP	_	5 fish	case
5	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 protect	obl
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 animals	cc
7	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 animals	amod
8	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 fish	conj
9	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 eat	nsubj
10	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 eat	aux
11	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 animals	acl:relcl
12	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 eat	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	protect	to-infinitive		it				from fish and other animals	vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent it=Beneficiary from fish=Theme
2	eat	would	other animals	it					vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/57-roots-stems-and-leaves/t12/