Test 2 · ★ · Endangered animals and extinction

«there were billions of them, no way a bird like that dies out» What does the passenger pigeon show?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: billions, that, way · What happens: be, die out, show · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 2 · ★ of lesson 77 «Endangered animals and extinction» 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	_	3 were	punct
2	there	there	PRON	PronType=Dem	3 were	expl
3	were	be	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	billions	billion	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 were	nsubj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 them	case
6	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 billions	nmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	22 show	punct
8	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	9 way	det
9	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 show	nsubj
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 bird	det
11	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 show	nsubj
12	like	like	SCONJ	_	14 dies	mark
13	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	14 dies	nsubj
14	dies	die	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	22 show	advcl
15	out	out	ADP	_	14 dies	compound:prt
16	»	»	PUNCT	_	14 dies	punct
17	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	22 show	nsubj
18	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	22 show	aux
19	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	22 show	det
20	passenger	passenger	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 pigeon	compound
21	pigeon	pigeon	NOUN	Number=Sing	22 show	compound
22	show	show	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 were	obl
23	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 were	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	roles by
1	be in a quote	past	billions of them	there	vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	die out in a quote	present	that		vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute
3	show	present · do-support	no way		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

Passenger pigeons are still flying today

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Passenger	passenger	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pigeons	compound
2	pigeons	pigeon	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 flying	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 flying	aux
4	still	still	ADV	_	5 flying	advmod
5	flying	fly	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
6	today	today	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 flying	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fly	present · progressive	Passenger pigeons				still; today		vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

Only rare animals ever go extinct

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Only	only	ADV	_	3 animals	advmod
2	rare	rare	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 animals	amod
3	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 go	nsubj
4	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	5 go	advmod
5	go	go	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	extinct	extinct	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 go	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	go	present	rare animals				ever	extinct property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Even the commonest animal can disappear when hunted and its forests lost

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Even	even	ADV	_	4 animal	advmod
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 animal	det
3	commonest	common	ADJ	Degree=Sup	4 animal	amod
4	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 disappear	nsubj
5	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 disappear	aux
6	disappear	disappear	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	when	when	SCONJ	_	8 hunted	mark
8	hunted	hunt	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 disappear	advcl
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 forests	cc
10	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	11 forests	nmod:poss
11	forests	forest	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 hunted	obl
12	lost	lose	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 hunted	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	disappear	can	the commonest animal		vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	hunt	participle	the commonest animal not said here	animal's forests	vn hunt-35.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	lose	participle	the commonest animal not said here		vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

Common animals can never die out, however many people hunt them

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Common	common	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 animals	amod
2	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 die	nsubj
3	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 die	aux
4	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	5 die	advmod
5	die	die	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	out	out	ADP	_	5 die	compound:prt
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 hunt	punct
8	however	however	ADV	_	11 hunt	advmod
9	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 people	amod
10	people	people	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 hunt	nsubj
11	hunt	hunt	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 die	conj
12	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 hunt	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not die out	can	Common animals						vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute
2	hunt	present	many people	animals = animal				however property	vn hunt-35.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=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/77-endangered-animals-and-extinction/t2/