Test 5 · Getting old: how long people and animals live

What would happen if every living thing lived exactly the same number of years?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: living thing · What happens: happen, live · To what, where: same number

This is test 5 of lesson 52 «Getting old: how long people and animals live» of the religion ethics 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	if	if	SCONJ	_	8 lived	mark
5	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	7 thing	det
6	living	living	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 thing	compound
7	thing	thing	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 lived	nsubj
8	lived	live	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
9	exactly	exactly	ADV	_	12 number	advmod
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 number	det
11	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 number	amod
12	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 lived	obj
13	of	of	ADP	_	14 years	case
14	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 number	nmod
15	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	live a condition, not said to happen	past	every living thing	the same number of years					vn lodge-46 «NP V ADV»: agent=Theme number=Location

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

Every animal would be the size of a tree

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	2 animal	det
2	animal	animal	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 size	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 size	aux
4	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	6 size	cop
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 size	det
6	size	size	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 tree	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 tree	det
9	tree	tree	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 size	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	would	every animal	the size				of a tree	tree rules

Option 2

Nothing would change at all

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
4	at	at	ADP	_	5 all	case
5	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	3 change	obl

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

Option 3

Mayflies would become the oldest creatures

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Mayflies	mayfly	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 become	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 become	aux
3	become	become	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 creatures	det
5	oldest	old	ADJ	Degree=Sup	6 creatures	amod
6	creatures	creature	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 become	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	would	Mayflies	the oldest creatures					vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Nature would be very different, because each kind now has its own life span

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nature	nature	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 different	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 different	aux
3	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	5 different	cop
4	very	very	ADV	_	5 different	advmod
5	different	different	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 has	punct
7	because	because	SCONJ	_	11 has	mark
8	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	9 kind	det
9	kind	kind	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 has	nsubj
10	now	now	ADV	PronType=Dem	11 has	advmod
11	has	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 different	conj
12	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 span	nmod:poss
13	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 span	amod
14	life	life	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 span	compound
15	span	span	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 has	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	would	Nature					different property	tree rules
2	have	present	each kind	kind's own life span			now		vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent span=Patient

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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