Test 3 · Fossils: how we know about life long ago

«found a shell fossil on a mountain, so the flood must've covered the mountains» How could a scientist test other ideas?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · What happens: find, cover · To what, where: shell fossil, mountain, flood

This is test 3 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	«	«	PUNCT	_	2 found	punct
2	found	find	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 fossil	det
4	shell	shell	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 fossil	compound
5	fossil	fossil	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 found	obj
6	on	on	ADP	_	8 mountain	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 mountain	det
8	mountain	mountain	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 fossil	nmod
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	15 covered	punct
10	so	so	ADV	_	15 covered	advmod
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 flood	det
12	flood	flood	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 covered	nsubj:pass
13	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	15 covered	aux
14	've	have	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	15 covered	aux
15	covered	cover	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 found	ccomp
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 mountains	det
17	mountains	mountain	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 covered	obj
18	»	»	PUNCT	_	15 covered	punct
19	How	how	ADV	PronType=Int	20 could	advmod
20	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	2 found	advcl
21	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	23 test	det
22	scientist	scientist	NOUN	Number=Sing	23 test	compound
23	test	test	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 could	obj
24	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	25 ideas	amod
25	ideas	idea	NOUN	Number=Plur	23 test	conj
26	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 found	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	find in a quote	past		a shell fossil		a mountain			vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent fossil=Attribute clause=Theme
2	cover in a quote	must · perfect · passive		the flood					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 · ← Mova's choice

Decide it was dropped by a bird and stop looking

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Decide	decide	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 dropped	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 dropped	aux:pass
4	dropped	drop	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Decide	ccomp
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 bird	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 bird	det
7	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 dropped	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 stop	cc
9	stop	stop	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Decide	conj
10	looking	look	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	9 stop	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	decide	imperative	you not said here		vn correspond-36.1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	drop	past · passive	a bird	it	vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme
3	stop	present	you not said here		vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality
4	look	gerund	you not said here		vn stimulus_subject-30.4 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Stimulus

Option 2

Count the shells and multiply the number by the height of the mountain

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Count	count	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 shells	det
3	shells	shell	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Count	obj
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 multiply	cc
5	multiply	multiply	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	1 Count	conj
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 number	det
7	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 multiply	obj
8	by	by	ADP	_	10 height	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 height	det
10	height	height	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 multiply	obl
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 mountain	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 mountain	det
13	mountain	mountain	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 height	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	count	imperative	you not said here	the shells					vn multiply-108 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shell=Theme
2	multiply	infinitive	you not said here	the number				by the height of the mountain	vn multiply-108-1 «NP V NP PP.co-theme»: agent=Agent number=Theme by height=Co-Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Look for evidence that the rocks formed on a sea floor and rose

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Look	look	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	for	for	ADP	_	3 evidence	case
3	evidence	evidence	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Look	obl
4	that	that	SCONJ	_	7 formed	mark
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 rocks	det
6	rocks	rock	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 formed	nsubj:pass
7	formed	form	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 evidence	acl
8	on	on	ADP	_	11 floor	case
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 floor	det
10	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 floor	compound
11	floor	floor	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 formed	obl
12	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 rose	cc
13	rose	rose	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 floor	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	look	imperative	you not said here					for evidence	vn rummage-35.5 «NP V PP.location PP.theme»: agent=Agent for evidence=Theme
2	form	participle · passive	evidence not said here	the rocks		a sea floor and rose			vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 4

Assume the oldest story is the right one

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Assume	assume	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 story	det
3	oldest	old	ADJ	Degree=Sup	4 story	amod
4	story	story	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 one	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 one	cop
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 one	det
7	right	right	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 one	amod
8	one	one	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Assume	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	assume	imperative	you not said here						vn adopt-93.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	is a	present	the oldest story	the right one					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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/74-fossils-life-long-ago/t3/