Test 9 · The amphibian room: poison frogs, axolotls and the frog re…

Why would animals living in dark caves lose their eyes over many generations?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: animals · What happens: live, lose · To what, where: dark caves, eyes, many generations

This is test 9 of lesson 89 «The amphibian room: poison frogs, axolotls and the frog rescue» 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=Int	8 lose	advmod
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	8 lose	aux
3	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 lose	nsubj
4	living	live	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 animals	acl
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 caves	case
6	dark	dark	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 caves	amod
7	caves	cave	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 living	obl
8	lose	lose	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=1 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	10 eyes	nmod:poss
10	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 lose	obj
11	over	over	ADP	_	13 generations	case
12	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 generations	amod
13	generations	generation	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 lose	obl
14	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 lose	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	live	gerund	animals not said here			dark caves			vn lodge-46 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in cave=Location
2	lose	would	animals	animals's eyes			over many generations		vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent eye=Eventuality

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

The cold freezes their eyes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 cold	det
2	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 freezes	nsubj
3	freezes	freeze	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 eyes	nmod:poss
5	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 freezes	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	freeze	present	the cold	their eyes					vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient eye=Result

Option 2

Bats steal their eyes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Bats	bat	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 steal	nsubj
2	steal	steal	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 eyes	nmod:poss
4	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 steal	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	steal	present	Bats	Bats's eyes					vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location eye=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

In total darkness eyes are no use, so they faded away

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	In	in	ADP	_	7 use	case
2	total	total	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 eyes	amod
3	darkness	darkness	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 eyes	compound
4	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 use	nsubj
5	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 use	cop
6	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	7 use	det
7	use	use	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 faded	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 use	punct
9	so	so	ADV	_	11 faded	advmod
10	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 faded	nsubj
11	faded	fade	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
12	away	away	ADV	_	11 faded	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	total darkness eyes			no use			tree rules
2	fade away	past	eyes = eye					away property	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

They poke their eyes out on the sharp rocks in the dark

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 poke	nsubj
2	poke	poke	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 eyes	nmod:poss
4	eyes	eye	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 poke	obj
5	out	out	ADV	_	2 poke	advmod
6	on	on	ADP	_	9 rocks	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 rocks	det
8	sharp	sharp	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 rocks	amod
9	rocks	rock	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 poke	obl
10	in	in	ADP	_	12 dark	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 dark	det
12	dark	dark	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 poke	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	poke out	present	They	their eyes		the sharp rocks		in the dark; out property	vn poke-19-1-1-1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent eye=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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