Test 11 · ★★ · The end of the dinosaurs, and birds as living dinosaurs

Why could two disasters together, an asteroid and the volcanoes, be worse than one?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: asteroid · What happens: be

This is test 11 · ★★ of lesson 76 «The end of the dinosaurs, and birds as living dinosaurs» 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=Rel	root	root
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 disasters	aux
3	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	4 disasters	nummod
4	disasters	disaster	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Why	nsubj
5	together	together	ADV	_	4 disasters	advmod
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 asteroid	punct
7	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 asteroid	det
8	asteroid	asteroid	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 disasters	appos
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 volcanoes	cc
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 volcanoes	det
11	volcanoes	volcano	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 asteroid	conj
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 worse	punct
13	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	14 worse	cop
14	worse	bad	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	8 asteroid	acl:relcl
15	than	than	ADP	_	16 one	case
16	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	14 worse	obl
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 Why	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	infinitive	a asteroid and the volcanoes not said here					than one; bad 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 · ← Mova's choice

Volcanoes cooled down the asteroid crater

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Volcanoes	volcano	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
2	cooled	cool	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Volcanoes	acl
3	down	down	ADP	_	2 cooled	compound:prt
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 crater	det
5	asteroid	asteroid	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 crater	compound
6	crater	crater	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 cooled	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cool down	participle	Volcanoes not said here	the asteroid crater					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent crater=Patient

Option 2

The ash from the volcanoes blocked the asteroid, but then made the whole world freeze

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 ash	det
2	ash	ash	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 blocked	nsubj
3	from	from	ADP	_	5 volcanoes	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 volcanoes	det
5	volcanoes	volcano	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 ash	nmod
6	blocked	block	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 asteroid	det
8	asteroid	asteroid	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 blocked	obj
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 made	punct
10	but	but	CCONJ	_	12 made	cc
11	then	then	ADV	PronType=Dem	12 made	advmod
12	made	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 blocked	conj
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 freeze	det
14	whole	whole	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 freeze	amod
15	world	world	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 freeze	compound
16	freeze	freeze	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 made	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	block	past	the ash from the volcanoes	the asteroid					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer asteroid=Theme
2	make	past	the ash from the volcanoes not said here	the whole world freeze			then		vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset freeze=Product

Option 3

Two disasters cancel each other out

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	2 disasters	nummod
2	disasters	disaster	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 cancel	nsubj
3	cancel	cancel	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	each	each	DET	ExtPos=PRON PronType=Rcp	3 cancel	obj
5	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 each	fixed
6	out	out	ADP	_	3 cancel	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cancel out	present	Two disasters	each					tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Life already weakened by one had less chance to survive the other

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Life	life	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 had	nsubj
2	already	already	ADV	_	3 weakened	advmod
3	weakened	weaken	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Life	acl
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 one	case
5	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 weakened	obl
6	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	less	less	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	8 chance	amod
8	chance	chance	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 had	obj
9	to	to	PART	_	10 survive	mark
10	survive	survive	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 chance	acl
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 other	det
12	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 survive	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	weaken	participle		Life not said here	by one	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
2	have	past	Life	less chance		vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chance=Patient
3	survive	to-infinitive	Life not said here	the other		vn exist-47.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme other=Circumstance

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/76-end-of-the-dinosaurs-and-birds/t11/