Test 7 · Britain and Ireland: a short story

mate says the irish famine was just bad luck with the weather. what's closer?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: mate, irish famine · What happens: say, be · To what, where: bad luck · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 7 of lesson 37 «Britain and Ireland: a short story» of the history 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	mate	mate	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 says	nsubj
2	says	say	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 famine	det
4	irish	Irish	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 famine	amod
5	famine	famine	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 luck	nsubj
6	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	9 luck	cop
7	just	just	ADV	_	9 luck	advmod
8	bad	bad	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 luck	amod
9	luck	luck	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 says	ccomp
10	with	with	ADP	_	12 weather	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 weather	det
12	weather	weather	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 luck	nmod
13	.	.	PUNCT	_	2 says	punct
14	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	16 closer	nsubj
15	's	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 closer	cop
16	closer	close	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	2 says	ccomp
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	2 says	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	say speech: assert	present	mate			vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent
2	is a	past	the irish famine	bad luck	with the weather	tree rules
3	is	present			close 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

It was caused by a volcano in Ireland

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 caused	nsubj:pass
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 caused	aux:pass
3	caused	cause	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	6 volcano	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 volcano	det
6	volcano	volcano	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 caused	obl
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 Ireland	case
8	Ireland	Ireland	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 caused	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cause	past · passive	a volcano	It		Ireland			vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition subject=Patient

Option 2

It was a short snack shortage

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	6 shortage	nsubj
2	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 shortage	cop
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 shortage	det
4	short	short	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 shortage	amod
5	snack	snack	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 shortage	compound
6	shortage	shortage	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	past	It	a short snack shortage					tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

A potato disease destroyed the main crop, and about a million died

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 disease	det
2	potato	potato	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 disease	compound
3	disease	disease	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 destroyed	nsubj
4	destroyed	destroy	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 crop	det
6	main	main	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 crop	amod
7	crop	crop	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 destroyed	obj
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 died	punct
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 died	cc
10	about	about	ADV	_	12 million	advmod
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 million	det
12	million	million	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	13 died	nsubj
13	died	die	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 destroyed	parataxis

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	destroy	past	a potato disease	the main crop					vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent crop=Patient
2	die	past	a million						vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

Option 4

Nobody actually died

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	3 died	nsubj
2	actually	actually	ADV	_	3 died	advmod
3	died	die	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	die	past	Nobody					actually property	vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

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/history/37-britain-and-ireland-a-short-story/t7/