Exam question 2 · Moving continents: from Pangaea to today

Identify the evidence that is consistent with the hypothesis that the continents were formerly contiguous.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, evidence, continents · What happens: identify, be · To what, where: evidence, hypothesis

This is exam question 2 of lesson 43 «Moving continents: from Pangaea to today» of the geography 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	3 evidence	det
3	evidence	evidence	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	6 consistent	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 consistent	cop
6	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 evidence	acl:relcl
7	with	with	ADP	_	9 hypothesis	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 hypothesis	det
9	hypothesis	hypothesis	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 consistent	obl
10	that	that	SCONJ	_	15 contiguous	mark
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 continents	det
12	continents	continent	NOUN	Number=Plur	15 contiguous	nsubj
13	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	15 contiguous	cop
14	formerly	formerly	ADV	_	15 contiguous	advmod
15	contiguous	contiguous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 hypothesis	acl
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the evidence		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent evidence=Theme
2	is	present	the evidence	the evidence not said here	with the hypothesis; consistent property	tree rules
3	is	past	the continents	the hypothesis not said here	contiguous, formerly 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 · ✓ the right answer

Identical fossil reptiles upon continents now separated by oceans

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Identical	identical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 reptiles	amod
2	fossil	fossil	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 reptiles	compound
3	reptiles	reptile	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 separated	nsubj:pass
4	upon	upon	ADP	_	5 continents	case
5	continents	continent	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 reptiles	nmod
6	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	7 separated	advmod
7	separated	separate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
8	by	by	ADP	_	9 oceans	case
9	oceans	ocean	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 separated	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	separate	participle · passive	oceans	Identical fossil reptiles upon continents			now		vn separate-23.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient

Option 2

The absence of any mountain ranges upon the continents

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 absence	det
2	absence	absence	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 ranges	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 mountain	case
4	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	5 mountain	det
5	mountain	mountain	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 absence	nmod
6	ranges	range	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	upon	upon	ADP	_	9 continents	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 continents	det
9	continents	continent	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 ranges	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	range	present	the absence of any mountain					upon the continents	vn meander-47.7 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme
2	absent			any mountain					nom absence «state transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

The present equality of the areas of all continents

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 equality	det
2	present	present	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 equality	amod
3	equality	equality	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 areas	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 areas	det
6	areas	area	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 equality	nmod
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 continents	case
8	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	9 continents	det
9	continents	continent	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 areas	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

The identical climate prevailing upon every continent at the present day

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 climate	det
2	identical	identical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 climate	amod
3	climate	climate	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	prevailing	prevail	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 climate	acl
5	upon	upon	ADP	_	7 continent	case
6	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	7 continent	det
7	continent	continent	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 prevailing	obl
8	at	at	ADP	_	11 day	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 day	det
10	present	present	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 day	amod
11	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 prevailing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prevail	gerund	the identical climate not said here			every continent	day		vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon continent=Location

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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