Test 11 · Fossils: how we know about life long ago

Why is a nearly complete skeleton like Sue so rare?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: complete skeleton · What happens: be

This is test 11 of lesson 74 «Fossils: how we know about life long ago» 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	10 rare	advmod
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 rare	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 skeleton	det
4	nearly	nearly	ADV	_	5 complete	advmod
5	complete	complete	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 skeleton	amod
6	skeleton	skeleton	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 rare	nsubj
7	like	like	ADP	_	8 Sue	case
8	Sue	Sue	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 skeleton	nmod
9	so	so	ADV	_	10 rare	advmod
10	rare	rare	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
11	?	?	PUNCT	_	10 rare	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	a complete skeleton like Sue					rare 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

Museums throw away all the skeletons that are not complete

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Museums	museum	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 throw	nsubj
2	throw	throw	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	away	away	ADV	_	2 throw	advmod
4	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	6 skeletons	det:predet
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 skeletons	det
6	skeletons	skeleton	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 throw	obj
7	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 complete	nsubj
8	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 complete	cop
9	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	10 complete	advmod
10	complete	complete	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 skeletons	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	throw away	present	Museums	all skeletons				away property	vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent skeleton=Theme
2	not is	present	all skeletons					complete property	tree rules

Option 2

Dinosaurs usually had very few bones

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Dinosaurs	dinosaur	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 had	nsubj
2	usually	usually	ADV	_	3 had	advmod
3	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	very	very	ADV	_	5 few	advmod
5	few	few	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 bones	amod
6	bones	bone	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 had	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	past	Dinosaurs	few bones				usually property	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bone=Patient

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Most T. rex were buried twice

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Most	most	ADJ	Degree=Sup	3 rex	amod
2	T.	T.	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 rex	compound
3	rex	rex	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 buried	nsubj:pass
4	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 buried	aux:pass
5	buried	bury	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	twice	twice	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	5 buried	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	bury	past · passive		Most T. rex				twice property	vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Most remains are scattered, eaten or rot before they are buried

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Most	most	ADJ	Degree=Sup	2 remains	amod
2	remains	remains	NOUN	Number=Ptan	4 scattered	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 scattered	aux:pass
4	scattered	scatter	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 eaten	punct
6	eaten	eat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 scattered	conj
7	or	or	CCONJ	_	8 rot	cc
8	rot	rot	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 scattered	conj
9	before	before	SCONJ	_	12 buried	mark
10	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	12 buried	nsubj:pass
11	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 buried	aux:pass
12	buried	bury	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 rot	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	roles by
1	scatter	present · passive	Most remains	vn spray-9.7-1 «NP V NP.theme»: subject=Theme
2	eat	participle		vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	rot	infinitive		vn entity_specific_cos-45.5 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
4	bury	present · passive	remains	vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=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/74-fossils-life-long-ago/t11/