Test 4 · ★ · Roots, stems and leaves

Why are most leaves flat instead of round like a ball?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: most leaves · What happens: be

This is test 4 · ★ 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	5 flat	advmod
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 flat	cop
3	most	most	ADJ	Degree=Sup	4 leaves	amod
4	leaves	leaf	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 flat	nsubj
5	flat	flat	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	instead	instead	ADV	ExtPos=ADP	11 ball	case
7	of	of	ADP	_	6 instead	fixed
8	round	round	ADV	_	11 ball	advmod
9	like	like	ADP	_	11 ball	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 ball	det
11	ball	ball	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 flat	obl
12	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 flat	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	most leaves					instead a ball; flat property	tree rules

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

Leaves are flat only because they are squashed in the bud

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Leaves	leaf	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 flat	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 flat	cop
3	flat	flat	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	only	only	ADV	_	8 squashed	advmod
5	because	because	SCONJ	_	8 squashed	mark
6	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 squashed	nsubj:pass
7	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 squashed	aux:pass
8	squashed	squash	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 flat	advcl
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 bud	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 bud	det
11	bud	bud	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 squashed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Leaves					flat property	tree rules
2	squash	present · passive		Leaves = leaf		the bud			vn funnel-9.3-1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: subject=Theme in bud=Trajectory

Option 2

Round leaves would roll away

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Round	round	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 leaves	amod
2	leaves	leaf	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 roll	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 roll	aux
4	roll	roll	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	away	away	ADV	_	4 roll	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	roll away	would	Round leaves					away property	vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

Flat leaves are easier for insects to eat

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Flat	flat	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 leaves	amod
2	leaves	leaf	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 easier	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 easier	cop
4	easier	easy	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 insects	case
6	insects	insect	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 easier	obl
7	to	to	PART	_	8 eat	mark
8	eat	eat	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 easier	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Flat leaves					for insects; easy property	tree rules
2	eat	to-infinitive	Flat leaves not said here						vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Flat leaves catch more light and let gases in and out

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Flat	flat	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 leaves	amod
2	leaves	leaf	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 catch	nsubj
3	catch	catch	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	5 light	amod
5	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 catch	obj
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 let	cc
7	let	let	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	3 catch	conj
8	gases	gas	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 let	obj
9	in	in	ADV	_	7 let	xcomp
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 out	cc
11	out	out	ADV	_	9 in	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	catch	present	Flat leaves	more light					vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent light=Theme
2	let	infinitive	Flat leaves not said here	gases					vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent gas=Theme

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/t4/