Test 4 · Fossils: how we know about life long ago

«just gonna climb up the cliff, best fossils are up top» What is the best answer?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, best fossils, best answer · What happens: climb up, be · To what, where: cliff, up top

This is test 4 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	_	4 climb	punct
2	just	just	ADV	_	4 climb	advmod
3	gonna	gonna	X	Foreign=Yes	4 climb	dep
4	climb	climb	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	up	up	ADP	_	4 climb	compound:prt
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 cliff	det
7	cliff	cliff	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 climb	obj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 top	punct
9	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	10 fossils	amod
10	fossils	fossil	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 top	nsubj
11	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 top	cop
12	up	up	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 top	amod
13	top	top	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 climb	obl
14	»	»	PUNCT	_	13 top	punct
15	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	13 top	nmod
16	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	15 What	cop
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 answer	det
18	best	good	ADJ	Degree=Sup	19 answer	amod
19	answer	answer	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 What	nsubj
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 climb	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	climb up in a quote	imperative	you not said here	the cliff	vn run-51.3.2 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Initial_Location cliff=Theme
2	is a in a quote	present	best fossils	up top	tree rules
3	is a	present	the best answer		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

Fine, as long as the tide is in

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fine	fine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 long	punct
3	as	as	ADV	_	4 long	advmod
4	long	long	ADV	Degree=Pos	1 Fine	advmod
5	as	as	ADP	_	7 tide	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 tide	det
7	tide	tide	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 long	obl
8	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 in	cop
9	in	in	ADP	_	1 Fine	obl

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

Option 2

Fine, just dig into the cliff bottom with a spade instead, it's quicker

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fine	fine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 dig	advcl
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Fine	punct
3	just	just	ADV	_	4 dig	advmod
4	dig	dig	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	into	into	ADP	_	8 bottom	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 bottom	det
7	cliff	cliff	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 bottom	compound
8	bottom	bottom	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 dig	obl
9	with	with	ADP	_	11 spade	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 spade	det
11	spade	spade	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 dig	obl
12	instead	instead	ADV	_	4 dig	advmod
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	16 quicker	punct
14	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	16 quicker	nsubj
15	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 quicker	cop
16	quicker	quick	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	4 dig	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dig	imperative	you not said here			the cliff bottom		with a spade; instead property	vn poke-19-1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with spade=Instrument
2	is	present	spade					quick property	tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

No, rockfalls happen there; search the beach away from the cliff

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	INTJ	Polarity=Neg	4 happen	discourse
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	4 happen	punct
3	rockfalls	rockfall	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 happen	nsubj
4	happen	happen	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	4 happen	advmod
6	;	;	PUNCT	_	7 search	punct
7	search	search	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 happen	conj
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 beach	det
9	beach	beach	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 search	obj
10	away	away	ADV	_	7 search	advmod
11	from	from	ADP	_	13 cliff	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 cliff	det
13	cliff	cliff	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 search	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	present	rockfalls			there			vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	search away	infinitive	rockfalls not said here	the beach		the cliff		away property	vn search-35.2 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent beach=Location

Option 4

Fine, cliffs are solid rock and never fall

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fine	fine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 cliffs	amod
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	1 Fine	punct
3	cliffs	cliff	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 rock	nsubj
4	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 rock	cop
5	solid	solid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 rock	amod
6	rock	rock	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 fall	cc
8	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	9 fall	advmod
9	fall	fall	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 rock	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	Fine cliffs	solid rock					tree rules
2	not fall	infinitive	Fine cliffs not said here						vn occur-48.3 «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.

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