Test 7 · Seeds and fruit and how they travel

Why might gorse pods burst on a hot dry day instead of a wet one?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: gorse pods · What happens: burst

This is test 7 of lesson 59 «Seeds and fruit and how they travel» 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 burst	advmod
2	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 pods	aux
3	gorse	gorse	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 pods	compound
4	pods	pod	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 burst	nsubj
5	burst	burst	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	on	on	ADP	_	10 day	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 day	det
8	hot	hot	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 day	amod
9	dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 day	amod
10	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 burst	obl
11	instead	instead	ADV	ExtPos=ADP	15 one	case
12	of	of	ADP	_	11 instead	fixed
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 one	det
14	wet	wet	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 one	amod
15	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 burst	obl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	5 burst	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	burst	present	gorse pods				day	instead a wet one	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=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 pods are scared of thunder

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 pods	det
2	pods	pod	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 scared	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 scared	cop
4	scared	scared	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 thunder	case
6	thunder	thunder	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 scared	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the pods					of thunder; scared property	tree rules

Option 2

Hot days make the seeds jump by themselves, like fleas on a dog

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Hot	hot	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 days	amod
2	days	day	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 make	nsubj
3	make	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 seeds	det
5	seeds	seed	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 jump	nsubj
6	jump	jump	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 make	xcomp
7	by	by	ADP	_	8 themselves	case
8	themselves	themselves	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	6 jump	obl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 fleas	punct
10	like	like	ADP	_	11 fleas	case
11	fleas	flea	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 make	obl
12	on	on	ADP	_	14 dog	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 dog	det
14	dog	dog	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 make	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present	Hot days					like fleas; on a dog	tree rules
2	jump	present	the seeds					by seeds = seed	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by themselves=Trajectory

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

Dry, windy weather spreads seeds best, and pods twist as they dry

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 weather	amod
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Dry	punct
3	windy	windy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 weather	amod
4	weather	weather	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 spreads	nsubj
5	spreads	spread	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	seeds	seed	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 spreads	obj
7	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	6 seeds	nmod
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 twist	punct
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 twist	cc
10	pods	pod	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 twist	nsubj
11	twist	twist	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 spreads	parataxis
12	as	as	SCONJ	_	14 dry	mark
13	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	14 dry	nsubj
14	dry	dry	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 twist	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	spread	present	Dry windy weather	seeds best	vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location seed=Theme
2	twist	present	pods		vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme
3	dry	present	pods = pod		vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 4

Rain makes them explode too early

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Rain	rain	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 makes	nsubj
2	makes	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 makes	obj
4	explode	explode	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 makes	xcomp
5	too	too	ADV	_	6 early	advmod
6	early	early	ADV	Degree=Pos	4 explode	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present	Rain	them = they					tree rules
2	explode	infinitive	them = they not said here					early property	vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=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/59-seeds-and-fruit-and-how-they-travel/t7/