Test 3 · ★ · Fossils

Why does a fish that dies and is buried in mud at once have a better chance of becoming a fossil than one that dies on a beach?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 1 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: fish, better chance · What happens: do, die, bury, have, become · To what, where: fish, mud, better chance, fossil, beach

This is test 3 · ★ of lesson 57 «Fossils» of the geography 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	root	root
2	does	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Why	conj
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	4 fish	det
4	fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 does	obj
5	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 dies	nsubj
6	dies	die	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 fish	acl:relcl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	9 buried	cc
8	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 buried	aux:pass
9	buried	bury	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 dies	conj
10	in	in	ADP	_	11 mud	case
11	mud	mud	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 buried	obl
12	at	at	SCONJ	_	14 have	mark
13	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	14 have	advmod
14	have	have	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 buried	advcl
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 chance	det
16	better	good	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	17 chance	amod
17	chance	chance	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 have	obj
18	of	of	SCONJ	_	19 becoming	mark
19	becoming	become	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	17 chance	acl
20	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	21 fossil	det
21	fossil	fossil	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 becoming	xcomp
22	than	than	ADP	_	23 one	case
23	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	19 becoming	obl
24	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	25 dies	nsubj
25	dies	die	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	23 one	acl:relcl
26	on	on	ADP	_	28 beach	case
27	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	28 beach	det
28	beach	beach	NOUN	Number=Sing	25 dies	obl
29	?	?	PUNCT	_	1 Why	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	do	present		a fish			vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fish=Eventuality
2	die	present	a fish				vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute
3	bury	present · passive	a fish not said here		mud		vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: in mud=Destination
4	have	infinitive	a fish not said here	a better chance		once property	vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent chance=Patient
5	become	gerund	a better chance not said here	a fossil		than one	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
6	die	present			a beach		vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

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

Quick burial protects it from rotting and scavengers

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Quick	quick	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 burial	amod
2	burial	burial	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 protects	nsubj
3	protects	protect	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 protects	obj
5	from	from	SCONJ	_	6 rotting	mark
6	rotting	rot	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 protects	advcl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 scavengers	cc
8	scavengers	scavenger	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 rotting	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	protect	present	Quick burial	it					vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Beneficiary
2	rot	gerund	Quick burial not said here						vn entity_specific_cos-45.5 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice

Mud is warmer than sand

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Mud	mud	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 warmer	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 warmer	cop
3	warmer	warm	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
4	than	than	ADP	_	5 sand	case
5	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 warmer	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Mud					than sand; warm property	tree rules

Option 3

Beaches have no oxygen

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Beaches	beach	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 have	nsubj
2	have	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 oxygen	det
4	oxygen	oxygen	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 have	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	present	Beaches	no oxygen					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent oxygen=Patient

Option 4

Fish on beaches slowly turn into sand grains in the sun

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 turn	nsubj
2	on	on	ADP	_	3 beaches	case
3	beaches	beach	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Fish	nmod
4	slowly	slowly	ADV	_	5 turn	advmod
5	turn	turn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	into	into	ADP	_	8 grains	case
7	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 grains	compound
8	grains	grain	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 turn	obl
9	in	in	ADP	_	11 sun	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 sun	det
11	sun	sun	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 turn	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	turn	present	Fish on beaches			sand grains		in the sun; slowly property	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into grain=Trajectory

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/t3/