Exam question 2 · Evolution simply: why living things change over many gener…

Identify the principal reason for which dark peppered moths increased in frequency in nineteenth-century England.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, dark · What happens: identify, pepper, increase · To what, where: principal reason, moths, frequency

This is exam question 2 of lesson 73 «Evolution simply: why living things change over many generations» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 peppered	obl
7	dark	dark	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 peppered	nsubj
8	peppered	pepper	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl:relcl
9	moths	moth	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 peppered	obj
10	increased	increase	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 moths	acl
11	in	in	ADP	_	12 frequency	case
12	frequency	frequency	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 increased	obl
13	in	in	ADP	_	16 century	case
14	nineteenth	nineteenth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 century	amod
15	-	-	PUNCT	_	14 nineteenth	punct
16	century	century	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 increased	obl
17	England	England	PROPN	Number=Sing	16 century	appos
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason				vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	pepper	past	dark	moths			for the principal reason	vn butter-9.9 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent moth=Destination
3	increase	participle		moths not said here	frequency	century		vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient

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

Dark moths migrated in great numbers from continental Europe

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Dark	dark	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 moths	amod
2	moths	moth	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	migrated	migrate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 moths	acl
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 numbers	case
5	great	great	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 numbers	amod
6	numbers	number	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 migrated	obl
7	from	from	ADP	_	9 Europe	case
8	continental	continental	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 Europe	amod
9	Europe	Europe	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 numbers	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	migrate	participle		Dark moths not said here		great numbers from continental Europe			tree rules

Option 2

The moths elected to darken their wings so as to match the trees upon which they rested

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 moths	det
2	moths	moth	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 match	nsubj
3	elected	elect	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 match	advcl
4	to	to	PART	_	5 darken	mark
5	darken	darken	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 match	advcl
6	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	7 wings	nmod:poss
7	wings	wing	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 darken	obj
8	so	so	ADV	_	11 match	advmod
9	as	as	SCONJ	_	11 match	mark
10	to	to	PART	_	11 match	mark
11	match	match	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 trees	det
13	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 match	obj
14	upon	upon	ADP	_	15 which	case
15	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	17 rested	obl
16	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	17 rested	nsubj
17	rested	rest	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 match	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	elect	participle	the moths not said here		vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	darken	to-infinitive	the moths not said here	moths's wings	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent wing=Patient
3	match	to-infinitive	the moths	the trees	vn amalgamate-22.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent tree=Patient
4	rest	past	moths = moth		vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon which=Location

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Predation by birds fell more heavily upon pale moths on soot-darkened trunks

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Predation	predation	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 fell	nsubj
2	by	by	ADP	_	3 birds	case
3	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Predation	nmod
4	fell	fall	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	6 heavily	advmod
6	heavily	heavily	ADV	_	4 fell	advmod
7	upon	upon	ADP	_	9 moths	case
8	pale	pale	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 moths	amod
9	moths	moth	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 fell	obl
10	on	on	ADP	_	14 trunks	case
11	soot	soot	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 darkened	compound
12	-	-	PUNCT	_	11 soot	punct
13	darkened	darken	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	14 trunks	amod
14	trunks	trunk	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 fell	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	other	roles by
1	fall	past	Predation by birds	darkened trunks	upon pale moths; heavily property	vn occur-48.3 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme upon moth=Location
2	darken	participle				vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
3	predate		birds			nom predation «act transitive»: by=agent

Option 4

Soot deposited upon the moths permanently coloured their wings

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Soot	soot	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 coloured	nsubj
2	deposited	deposit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Soot	acl
3	upon	upon	ADP	_	5 moths	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 moths	det
5	moths	moth	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 deposited	obl:agent
6	permanently	permanently	ADV	_	7 coloured	advmod
7	coloured	colour	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 wings	nmod:poss
9	wings	wing	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 coloured	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	deposit	participle		Soot not said here					vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	colour	past	Soot	moths's wings				permanently property	tree rules

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.

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