Exam question 2 · Deep time and the story of life

Identify the principle upon which the radiometric dating of rocks depends.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, radiometric dating · What happens: identify, depend, date · To what, where: principle, rocks

This is exam question 2 of lesson 58 «Deep time and the story of life» 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 principle	det
3	principle	principle	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
4	upon	upon	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 depends	obl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 dating	det
7	radiometric	radiometric	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 dating	amod
8	dating	dating	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 depends	nsubj
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 rocks	case
10	rocks	rock	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 dating	nmod
11	depends	depend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 principle	acl:relcl
12	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principle		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent principle=Theme
2	depend	present	the radiometric dating of rocks		upon the principle	vn rely-70 «NP V PP.theme S_ING»: agent=Agent
3	date			rocks		nom dating «act transitive»: of=patient

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

The colour of rock darkens at a constant and measurable rate

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 colour	det
2	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 darkens	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 rock	case
4	rock	rock	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 colour	nmod
5	darkens	darken	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	at	at	ADP	_	11 rate	case
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 rate	det
8	constant	constant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 rate	amod
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 measurable	cc
10	measurable	measurable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 constant	conj
11	rate	rate	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 darkens	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	darken	present	the colour of rock			a constant rate			vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Radioactive atoms decay into other atoms at a constant rate

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Radioactive	radioactive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 atoms	amod
2	atoms	atom	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 decay	nsubj
3	decay	decay	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	into	into	ADP	_	6 atoms	case
5	other	other	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 atoms	amod
6	atoms	atom	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 decay	obl
7	at	at	ADP	_	10 rate	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 rate	det
9	constant	constant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 rate	amod
10	rate	rate	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 decay	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	decay	present	Radioactive atoms			other atoms		at a constant rate	vn entity_specific_cos-45.5 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 3

Rocks increase in mass at a constant rate

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Rocks	rock	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 increase	nsubj
2	increase	increase	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	4 mass	case
4	mass	mass	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 increase	obl
5	at	at	ADP	_	8 rate	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 rate	det
7	constant	constant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 rate	amod
8	rate	rate	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 increase	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	increase	present	Rocks					at a constant rate; in mass	vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP.patient V PP.attribute PP.extent PP.initial_state PP.result»: agent=Patient in mass=Attribute at rate=Extent

Option 4

Fossils within rocks multiply at a constant rate

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fossils	fossil	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 multiply	nsubj
2	within	within	ADP	_	3 rocks	case
3	rocks	rock	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Fossils	nmod
4	multiply	multiply	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	at	at	ADP	_	8 rate	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 rate	det
7	constant	constant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 rate	amod
8	rate	rate	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 multiply	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	multiply	present	Fossils within rocks			a constant rate			vn birth-28.2-2 «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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/58-deep-time-and-the-story-of-life/e2/