Exam question 3 · Ancient times and famous stories

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the chronological relationship between humans and the large dinosaurs?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: chronological relationship

This is exam question 3 of lesson 21 «Ancient times and famous stories» of the myths 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 relationship	det
10	chronological	chronological	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 relationship	amod
11	relationship	relationship	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
12	between	between	ADP	_	13 humans	case
13	humans	human	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 relationship	nmod
14	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 dinosaurs	cc
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 dinosaurs	det
16	large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 dinosaurs	amod
17	dinosaurs	dinosaur	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 relationship	conj
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the chronological relationship and the large dinosaurs				of the following statements; between humans; accurately 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

Humans and large dinosaurs coexisted for several thousand years

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Humans	human	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 coexisted	nsubj
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 dinosaurs	cc
3	large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 dinosaurs	amod
4	dinosaurs	dinosaur	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Humans	conj
5	coexisted	coexist	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	for	for	ADP	_	9 years	case
7	several	several	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 thousand	amod
8	thousand	thousand	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	9 years	nummod
9	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 coexisted	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	coexist	participle	Humans and large dinosaurs				year		vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

The large dinosaurs became extinct approximately two thousand years ago

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 dinosaurs	det
2	large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 dinosaurs	amod
3	dinosaurs	dinosaur	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 became	nsubj
4	became	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	extinct	extinct	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 became	xcomp
6	approximately	approximately	ADV	_	8 thousand	advmod
7	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	8 thousand	compound
8	thousand	thousand	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	9 years	nummod
9	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 ago	obl:unmarked
10	ago	ago	ADV	_	4 became	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	past	the large dinosaurs					ago, extinct property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Humans appeared shortly before the extinction of the large dinosaurs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Humans	human	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 appeared	nsubj
2	appeared	appear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	shortly	shortly	ADV	_	2 appeared	advmod
4	before	before	ADP	_	6 extinction	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 extinction	det
6	extinction	extinction	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 appeared	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	10 dinosaurs	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 dinosaurs	det
9	large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 dinosaurs	amod
10	dinosaurs	dinosaur	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 extinction	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	appear	past	Humans			the extinction of the large dinosaurs		shortly property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme before extinction=Location
2	extinguish			the large dinosaurs					nom extinction «state transitive»: of=patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The large dinosaurs became extinct approximately sixty-six million years before humans appeared

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 dinosaurs	det
2	large	large	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 dinosaurs	amod
3	dinosaurs	dinosaur	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 became	nsubj
4	became	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	extinct	extinct	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 became	xcomp
6	approximately	approximately	ADV	_	10 million	advmod
7	sixty	sixty	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	10 million	compound
8	-	-	PUNCT	_	7 sixty	punct
9	six	six	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	7 sixty	conj
10	million	million	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	11 years	nummod
11	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 became	obl:unmarked
12	before	before	SCONJ	_	14 appeared	mark
13	humans	human	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 appeared	nsubj
14	appeared	appear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 became	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	past	the large dinosaurs				year	extinct property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
2	appear	past	humans						vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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/myths/21-ancient-times-and-famous-stories/e3/