Test 9 · ★ · Fossils

What would happen to our knowledge of the past if no mud or sand ever buried dead things?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · What happens: happen, bury · To what, where: mud

This is test 9 · ★ 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 happen	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	6 knowledge	case
5	our	our	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=1 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 knowledge	nmod:poss
6	knowledge	knowledge	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 happen	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 past	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 past	det
9	past	past	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 knowledge	nmod
10	if	if	SCONJ	_	16 buried	mark
11	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	12 mud	det
12	mud	mud	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 buried	nsubj:pass
13	or	or	CCONJ	_	14 sand	cc
14	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 mud	conj
15	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	16 buried	advmod
16	buried	bury	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 happen	advcl
17	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 things	amod
18	things	thing	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 buried	obj
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would						to our knowledge of the past	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	bury a condition, not said to happen	participle · passive		no mud or sand			ever		vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Theme thing=Destination

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

We would have even more fossils, lying about on the ground

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	We	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	3 have	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 have	aux
3	have	have	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	even	even	ADV	_	5 more	advmod
5	more	more	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	6 fossils	amod
6	fossils	fossil	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 have	obj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 lying	punct
8	lying	lie	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 have	parataxis
9	about	about	ADV	_	8 lying	advmod
10	on	on	ADP	_	12 ground	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 ground	det
12	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 lying	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	have	would	We	more fossils					vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent fossil=Patient
2	lie	gerund				the ground		about property	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent on ground=Location

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Almost no fossils would form, so we would know far less

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Almost	almost	ADV	_	5 form	advmod
2	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	3 fossils	det
3	fossils	fossil	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 form	nsubj
4	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 form	aux
5	form	form	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 know	punct
7	so	so	ADV	_	10 know	advmod
8	we	we	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=1 PronType=Prs	10 know	nsubj
9	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 know	aux
10	know	know	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 form	conj
11	far	far	ADV	Degree=Pos	12 less	advmod
12	less	less	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	10 know	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	form	would	no fossils					almost property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	know	would	we						vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer

Option 3

Fossils would form in the sky instead

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fossils	fossil	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 form	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 form	aux
3	form	form	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	in	in	ADP	_	6 sky	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 sky	det
6	sky	sky	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 form	obl
7	instead	instead	ADV	_	3 form	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	form	would	Fossils			the sky		instead property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in sky=Location

Option 4

Nothing would change

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	3 change	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 change	aux
3	change	change	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	change	would	Nothing						vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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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