Test 4 · Soil and what lives in it

If all the decomposers in a wood disappeared, what would happen?

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: decomposers · What happens: disappear, happen

This is test 4 of lesson 63 «Soil and what lives in it» of the world 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	If	if	SCONJ	_	8 disappeared	mark
2	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	4 decomposers	det:predet
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 decomposers	det
4	decomposers	decomposer	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 disappeared	nsubj
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 wood	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 wood	det
7	wood	wood	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 decomposers	nmod
8	disappeared	disappear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	12 happen	advcl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 disappeared	punct
10	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	12 happen	nsubj
11	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 happen	aux
12	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
13	?	?	PUNCT	_	12 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	disappear a condition, not said to happen	participle	all decomposers in a wood						vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	happen	would							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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

The soil would become richer and richer every year as the dead things piled up

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 soil	det
2	soil	soil	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 become	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 become	aux
4	become	become	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	richer	rich	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	9 year	amod
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 richer	cc
7	richer	rich	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	5 richer	conj
8	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	9 year	det
9	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 become	xcomp
10	as	as	ADP	_	13 things	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 things	det
12	dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 things	amod
13	things	thing	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 year	nmod
14	piled	pile	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	13 things	acl
15	up	up	ADP	_	14 piled	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	would	the soil	every richer year as the dead things					vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient
2	pile up	participle		the dead things not said here					vn spray-9.7-1-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Dead leaves and bodies would pile up and the soil would lose its nutrients

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Dead	dead	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 leaves	amod
2	leaves	leaf	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 pile	nsubj
3	and	and	CCONJ	_	4 bodies	cc
4	bodies	body	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 leaves	conj
5	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	6 pile	aux
6	pile	pile	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
7	up	up	ADP	_	6 pile	compound:prt
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 lose	cc
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 soil	det
10	soil	soil	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 lose	nsubj
11	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 lose	aux
12	lose	lose	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	6 pile	conj
13	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 nutrients	nmod:poss
14	nutrients	nutrient	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 lose	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pile up	would	Dead leaves and bodies						vn spray-9.7-1-1 «NP V PP.destination»: agent=Theme
2	lose	would	the soil	soil's nutrients					vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent nutrient=Eventuality

Option 3

The trees would grow faster than ever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 trees	det
2	trees	tree	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 grow	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 grow	aux
4	grow	grow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	faster	fast	ADV	Degree=Cmp	4 grow	advmod
6	than	than	ADP	_	7 ever	case
7	ever	ever	ADV	PronType=Ind	4 grow	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	grow	would	the trees					fast property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4

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

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/world/63-soil-and-what-lives-in-it/t4/