Exam question 2 · Plastics: useful and stubborn

Identify the principal reason for which plastic debris persists in the marine environment for prolonged periods.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, plastic debris · What happens: identify, persist, prolong · To what, where: principal reason, marine environment

This is exam question 2 of lesson 29 «Plastics: useful and stubborn» of the chemistry course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 persists	obl
7	plastic	plastic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 debris	amod
8	debris	debris	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 persists	nsubj
9	persists	persist	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	parataxis
10	in	in	ADP	_	13 environment	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 environment	det
12	marine	marine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 environment	amod
13	environment	environment	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 persists	obl
14	for	for	ADP	_	16 periods	case
15	prolonged	prolong	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	16 periods	amod
16	periods	period	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 persists	obl
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	persist	present	plastic debris		the marine environment	for the principal reason; for prolonged periods	vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in environment=Location
3	prolong	participle					vn sustain-55.6 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent

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 · ✓ the right answer

Few microorganisms are capable of decomposing it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Few	few	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 microorganisms	amod
2	microorganisms	microorganism	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 capable	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 capable	cop
4	capable	capable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	of	of	SCONJ	_	6 decomposing	mark
6	decomposing	decompose	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 capable	advcl
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 decomposing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Few microorganisms					capable property	tree rules
2	decompose	gerund	Few microorganisms not said here	it					tree rules

Option 2

Salt water converts it into stone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Salt	salt	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 water	compound
2	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 converts	nsubj
3	converts	convert	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 converts	obj
5	into	into	ADP	_	6 stone	case
6	stone	stone	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 converts	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	convert	present	Salt water	it				into stone result	vn turn-26.6.1-1 «NP V NP.patient PP.result»: agent=Agent it=Patient into stone=Result

Option 3

It is replenished continually by marine animals of many kinds

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 replenished	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 replenished	aux:pass
3	replenished	replenish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	continually	continually	ADV	_	3 replenished	advmod
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 animals	case
6	marine	marine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 animals	amod
7	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 replenished	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 kinds	case
9	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 kinds	amod
10	kinds	kind	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 animals	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	replenish	present · passive	marine animals of many kinds	It				continually property	vn fill-9.8 «NP V NP.destination»: agent=Agent subject=Destination

Option 4

It is dissolved and redeposited each night

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 dissolved	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 dissolved	aux:pass
3	dissolved	dissolve	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 redeposited	cc
5	redeposited	redeposit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 dissolved	conj
6	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	7 night	det
7	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 dissolved	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	dissolve	present · passive		It			night		vn break-45.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
2	redeposit	participle							tree rules

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/chemistry/29-plastics-useful-stubborn/e2/