---
title: Ascertain the approximate interval between the scientific descriptio… — Giants people saw: Steller's sea cow,… · tree and pragmatics
description: Ascertain the approximate interval between the scientific description of Steller's sea cow and its extinction. Exam question 1 of lesson 386 «Giants people saw: Steller's sea cow, Haast's eagle, giant lemurs and elephant birds» of the biology course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree
---

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# Exam question 1 · Giants people saw: Steller's sea cow, Haast's eagle, giant…

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Ascertain the approximate interval between the scientific description of Steller's sea cow and its extinction.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 4 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** you, description · **What happens:** ascertain, describe, extinguish · **To what, where:** approximate interval, sea cow

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This is exam question 1 of lesson 386 «Giants people saw: Steller's sea cow, Haast's eagle, giant lemurs and elephant birds» of the biology 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](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/386-giants-people-saw-steller-s-sea-cow-haast-s-eagle-giant-lemurs-and-elephant-birds/#e1).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:386-giants-people-saw-steller-s-sea-cow-haast-s-eagle-giant-lemurs-and-elephant-birds:e1:1
# text = Ascertain the approximate interval between the scientific description of Steller's sea cow and its extinction.
1	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	VB	Mood=Imp|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
2	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	4	det	_	_
3	approximate	approximate	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	amod	_	_
4	interval	interval	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	1	obj	_	_
5	between	between	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	scientific	scientific	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	8	amod	_	_
8	description	description	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nmod	_	_
9	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
10	Steller	Steller	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	13	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	's	's	PART	POS	_	10	case	_	_
12	sea	sea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	compound	_	_
13	cow	cow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nmod	_	_
14	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	16	cc	_	_
15	its	its	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	16	nmod:poss	_	_
16	extinction	extinction	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	13	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
17	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	1	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ascertain** | imperative | you *not said here* | the approximate interval |  |  |  | between the scientific description of Steller's sea cow and description's extinction | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent interval=Topic |
| 2 | **describe** |  |  | Steller's sea cow and description's extinction |  |  |  |  | nom description «communication transitive»: of=patient |
| 3 | **extinguish** |  | description |  |  |  |  |  | nom extinction «state transitive»: poss=agent |

<!-- .note -->
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 {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Two thousand seven hundred years

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:386-giants-people-saw-steller-s-sea-cow-haast-s-eagle-giant-lemurs-and-elephant-birds:e1:o1:1
# text = Two thousand seven hundred years
1	Two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	compound	_	_
2	thousand	thousand	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	compound	_	_
3	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	compound	_	_
4	hundred	hundred	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
5	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

### Option 2 {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Two hundred and seventy years

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:386-giants-people-saw-steller-s-sea-cow-haast-s-eagle-giant-lemurs-and-elephant-birds:e1:o2:1
# text = Two hundred and seventy years
1	Two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	compound	_	_
2	hundred	hundred	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	5	nummod	_	_
3	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	4	cc	_	_
4	seventy	seventy	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	conj	_	_
5	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Two years

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:386-giants-people-saw-steller-s-sea-cow-haast-s-eagle-giant-lemurs-and-elephant-birds:e1:o3:1
# text = Two years
1	Two	two	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	2	nummod	_	_
2	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	0	root	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

### Option 4 · ✓ the right answer {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Twenty-seven years

```conllu
# sent_id = question:biology:386-giants-people-saw-steller-s-sea-cow-haast-s-eagle-giant-lemurs-and-elephant-birds:e1:o4:1
# text = Twenty-seven years
1	Twenty	twenty	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	-	-	PUNCT	:	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	seven	seven	NUM	CD	NumForm=Word|NumType=Card	4	nummod	_	_
4	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	1	conj	_	_
```

<!-- .note -->
The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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**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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