Test 5 · Fossils: how we know about life long ago

What would happen to a dead fish lying on a dry beach for a week?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: dead fish · What happens: happen, lie · To what, where: dry beach

This is test 5 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 happen	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	7 fish	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 fish	det
6	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 fish	amod
7	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 happen	obl
8	lying	lie	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 fish	acl
9	on	on	ADP	_	12 beach	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 beach	det
11	dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 beach	amod
12	beach	beach	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 lying	obl
13	for	for	ADP	_	15 week	case
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 week	det
15	week	week	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 lying	obl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would						to a dead fish	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	lie	gerund	a dead fish not said here			a dry beach	week		vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on beach=Location

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

It would turn into solid stone within a few days in the hot sun

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 turn	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 turn	aux
3	turn	turn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	into	into	ADP	_	6 stone	case
5	solid	solid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 stone	amod
6	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 turn	obl
7	within	within	ADP	_	10 days	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 days	det
9	few	few	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 days	amod
10	days	day	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 turn	obl
11	in	in	ADP	_	14 sun	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 sun	det
13	hot	hot	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 sun	amod
14	sun	sun	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 turn	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	turn	would	It			solid stone	day	in the hot sun	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V PP.source PP.trajectory PP.destination»: agent=Theme into stone=Source in sun=Trajectory

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

It would dissolve in the sand and leave a bone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 dissolve	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 dissolve	aux
3	dissolve	dissolve	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 sand	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 sand	det
6	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 dissolve	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 leave	cc
8	leave	leave	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 dissolve	conj
9	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 bone	det
10	bone	bone	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 leave	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dissolve	would	It			the sand			vn break-45.1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
2	leave	present		a bone					vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent bone=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

It would rot or be eaten, so it would almost never become a fossil

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 rot	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 rot	aux
3	rot	rot	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	or	or	CCONJ	_	6 eaten	cc
5	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 eaten	aux:pass
6	eaten	eat	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 rot	conj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 become	punct
8	so	so	ADV	_	13 become	advmod
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	13 become	nsubj
10	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	13 become	aux
11	almost	almost	ADV	_	12 never	advmod
12	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	13 become	advmod
13	become	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 rot	parataxis
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 fossil	det
15	fossil	fossil	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 become	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	rot	would	It		vn entity_specific_cos-45.5 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
2	eat	infinitive · passive			vn eat-39.1-1 «NP V»
3	not become	would	it	a fossil	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

Option 4

It would certainly become a perfect fossil

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 become	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 become	aux
3	certainly	certainly	ADV	_	4 become	advmod
4	become	become	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 fossil	det
6	perfect	perfect	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 fossil	amod
7	fossil	fossil	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 become	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	would	It	a perfect fossil				certainly property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

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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