Exam question 2 · Soil

Identify the principal reason for which numerous rainforest soils are deficient in nutrients.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, numerous rainforest soils · What happens: identify, be · To what, where: principal reason, nutrients

This is exam question 2 of lesson 56 «Soil» 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	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	11 deficient	obl
7	numerous	numerous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 soils	amod
8	rainforest	rainforest	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 soils	compound
9	soils	soil	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 deficient	nsubj
10	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 deficient	cop
11	deficient	deficient	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	acl
12	in	in	ADP	_	13 nutrients	case
13	nutrients	nutrient	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 deficient	obl
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	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	is	present	numerous rainforest soils			nutrients		for the principal reason; deficient 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

Rainfall in such regions is wholly insufficient

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Rainfall	rainfall	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 insufficient	nsubj
2	in	in	ADP	_	4 regions	case
3	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 regions	amod
4	regions	region	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Rainfall	nmod
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 insufficient	cop
6	wholly	wholly	ADV	_	7 insufficient	advmod
7	insufficient	insufficient	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Rainfall in such regions					insufficient, wholly property	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Heavy rainfall leaches nutrients, the greater part being retained within vegetation

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 rainfall	amod
2	rainfall	rainfall	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 leaches	nsubj
3	leaches	leach	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	nutrients	nutrient	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 leaches	obj
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 retained	punct
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 part	det
7	greater	great	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	8 part	amod
8	part	part	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 retained	nsubj:pass
9	being	be	AUX	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	10 retained	aux:pass
10	retained	retain	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 leaches	conj
11	within	within	ADP	_	12 vegetation	case
12	vegetation	vegetation	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 retained	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	leach	present	Heavy rainfall	nutrients					vn wipe_manner-10.4.1 «NP V NP.source»: agent=Agent nutrient=Source
2	retain	gerund · passive		the greater part				within vegetation	tree rules

Option 3

Such soils consist entirely of bedrock

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 soils	amod
2	soils	soil	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 consist	nsubj
3	consist	consist	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	3 consist	advmod
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 bedrock	case
6	bedrock	bedrock	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 consist	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	consist	present	Such soils					of bedrock; entirely property	tree rules

Option 4

Temperatures are too low for decomposition

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Temperatures	temperature	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 low	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 low	cop
3	too	too	ADV	_	4 low	advmod
4	low	low	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 decomposition	case
6	decomposition	decomposition	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 low	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Temperatures					for decomposition; low property	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.

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