Exam question 4 · Fossils

Ascertain the relationship which is presently accepted between birds and dinosaurs.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, accept · To what, where: relationship

This is exam question 4 of lesson 57 «Fossils» 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 relationship	det
3	relationship	relationship	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 accepted	nsubj:pass
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 accepted	aux:pass
6	presently	presently	ADV	_	7 accepted	advmod
7	accepted	accept	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 relationship	acl:relcl
8	between	between	ADP	_	9 birds	case
9	birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 accepted	obl
10	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 dinosaurs	cc
11	dinosaurs	dinosaur	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 birds	conj
12	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the relationship					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent relationship=Topic
2	accept	present · passive		the relationship				between birds and dinosaurs; presently property	vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

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

Birds are descended from bats

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 descended	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 descended	aux:pass
3	descended	descend	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	from	from	ADP	_	5 bats	case
5	bats	bat	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 descended	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	descend	present · passive		Birds		bats			vn meander-47.7-1 «PP.location V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 2

Birds preceded all dinosaurs by a billion years

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 preceded	nsubj
2	preceded	proceed	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	4 dinosaurs	det
4	dinosaurs	dinosaur	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 preceded	obj
5	by	by	ADP	_	8 years	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 years	det
7	billion	billion	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	8 years	nummod
8	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 preceded	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	proceed	past	Birds	all dinosaurs			year		tree rules

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Birds are themselves dinosaurs, descended from feathered forms

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 dinosaurs	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 dinosaurs	cop
3	themselves	themselves	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	4 dinosaurs	nsubj
4	dinosaurs	dinosaur	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 descended	punct
6	descended	descend	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 dinosaurs	acl
7	from	from	ADP	_	9 forms	case
8	feathered	feathered	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 forms	amod
9	forms	form	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 descended	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	Birds	dinosaurs					tree rules
2	descend	participle		dinosaurs not said here		feathered forms			vn meander-47.7-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme from form=Location

Option 4

Birds and dinosaurs are wholly unrelated

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 unrelated	nsubj
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 dinosaurs	cc
3	dinosaurs	dinosaur	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Birds	conj
4	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 unrelated	cop
5	wholly	wholly	ADV	_	6 unrelated	advmod
6	unrelated	unrelated	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Birds and dinosaurs					unrelated, wholly 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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/57-fossils/e4/