Exam question 4 · Soil and what lives in it

Select the response that is consistent with the established facts concerning the cause of soil erosion.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, response, established facts · What happens: select, be, establish, concern, cause · To what, where: response, cause, soil erosion

This is exam question 4 of lesson 63 «Soil and what lives in it» of the world 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 consistent	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 consistent	cop
6	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 response	acl:relcl
7	with	with	ADP	_	10 facts	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 facts	det
9	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 facts	amod
10	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 consistent	obl
11	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 facts	acl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 cause	det
13	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 concerning	obj
14	of	of	ADP	_	16 erosion	case
15	soil	soil	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 erosion	compound
16	erosion	erosion	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 cause	nmod
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response		vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	is	present	the response		with the established facts; consistent property	tree rules
3	establish	participle				vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
4	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the cause of soil erosion		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus cause=Experiencer
5	cause			soil erosion		nom cause «event 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

Earthworm tunnels cause the soil to collapse

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Earthworm	earthworm	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 tunnels	compound
2	tunnels	tunnel	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 cause	nsubj
3	cause	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 soil	det
5	soil	soil	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 cause	obj
6	to	to	PART	_	7 collapse	mark
7	collapse	collapse	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 cause	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cause	present	Earthworm tunnels	the soil					vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition soil=Patient
2	collapse	to-infinitive	Earthworm tunnels not said here						vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 2

Humus causes the soil to dissolve in rain

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Humus	humus	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 causes	nsubj
2	causes	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 soil	det
4	soil	soil	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 causes	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 dissolve	mark
6	dissolve	dissolve	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 causes	advcl
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 rain	case
8	rain	rain	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 dissolve	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cause	present	Humus	the soil					vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition soil=Patient
2	dissolve	to-infinitive	Humus not said here			rain			vn break-45.1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Bare soil without roots is readily washed or blown away

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Bare	bare	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 soil	amod
2	soil	soil	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 washed	nsubj:pass
3	without	without	ADP	_	4 roots	case
4	roots	root	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 soil	nmod
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 washed	aux:pass
6	readily	readily	ADV	_	7 washed	advmod
7	washed	wash	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
8	or	or	CCONJ	_	9 blown	cc
9	blown	blow	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 washed	conj
10	away	away	ADV	_	9 blown	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	wash	present · passive		Bare soil without roots				readily property	vn floss-41.2.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
2	blow away	participle						away property	vn split-23.2 «NP V apart»: agent=Patient

Option 4

Plant roots loosen the soil and carry it off

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Plant	plant	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 roots	compound
2	roots	root	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 loosen	nsubj
3	loosen	loosen	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 soil	det
5	soil	soil	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 loosen	obj
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 carry	cc
7	carry	carry	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 loosen	conj
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 carry	obj
9	off	off	ADP	_	7 carry	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	loosen	present	Plant roots	the soil					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent soil=Patient
2	carry off	present	Plant roots not said here	soil					vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=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.

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