Exam question 4 · Seeds and fruit and how they travel

Ascertain the principal purpose of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, Svalbard Global Seed Vault · What happens: ascertain, purpose · To what, where: principal purpose

This is exam question 4 of lesson 59 «Seeds and fruit and how they travel» of the biology course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 purpose	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 purpose	amod
4	purpose	purpose	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	10 Vault	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 Vault	det
7	Svalbard	Svalbard	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 Vault	compound
8	Global	Global	PROPN	_	10 Vault	compound
9	Seed	Seed	PROPN	Number=Sing	10 Vault	compound
10	Vault	Vault	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 purpose	nmod
11	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the principal purpose of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent purpose=Topic
2	purpose		the Svalbard Global Seed Vault						nom purpose «cognition intransitive»: of=agent

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

The investigation of the effects of prolonged cold upon growth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 investigation	det
2	investigation	investigation	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 prolonged	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 effects	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 effects	det
5	effects	effect	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 investigation	nmod
6	of	of	ADP	_	5 effects	nmod
7	prolonged	prolong	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 prolonged	xcomp
9	upon	upon	ADP	_	10 growth	case
10	growth	growth	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 prolonged	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prolong	past	the investigation of the effects					upon growth; cold property	vn sustain-55.6 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent
2	investigate			the effects					nom investigation «cognition transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

The cultivation of vegetables beneath the ice

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cultivation	det
2	cultivation	cultivation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 vegetables	case
4	vegetables	vegetable	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 cultivation	nmod
5	beneath	beneath	ADP	_	7 ice	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 ice	det
7	ice	ice	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 cultivation	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cultivate			vegetables				beneath the ice	nom cultivation «act transitive»: of=patient beneath=obl

Option 3

The commercial sale of seeds to visitors

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 sale	det
2	commercial	commercial	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 sale	amod
3	sale	sale	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 seeds	case
5	seeds	seed	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 sale	nmod
6	to	to	ADP	_	7 visitors	case
7	visitors	visitor	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 sale	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The preservation of seed samples against the loss of crops

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 preservation	det
2	preservation	preservation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 samples	case
4	seed	seed	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 samples	compound
5	samples	sample	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 preservation	nmod
6	against	against	ADP	_	8 loss	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 loss	det
8	loss	loss	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 samples	nmod
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 crops	case
10	crops	crop	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 loss	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	preserve			seed samples against the loss of crops					nom preservation «act transitive»: of=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/59-seeds-and-fruit-and-how-they-travel/e4/