Exam question 1 · Lego builds: instructions vs your own ideas

Identify the principal reason for which a tower of bricks stacked in vertical alignment is prone to fracture.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, principal reason · What happens: identify, stack, be, fracture · To what, where: principal reason, bricks, vertical alignment, prone

This is exam question 1 of lesson 32 «Lego builds: instructions vs your own ideas» of the arts 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	16 prone	nsubj
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 tower	det
8	tower	tower	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 prone	nsubj
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 bricks	case
10	bricks	brick	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 tower	nmod
11	stacked	stack	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 bricks	acl
12	in	in	ADP	_	14 alignment	case
13	vertical	vertical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 alignment	amod
14	alignment	alignment	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 stacked	obl
15	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	16 prone	cop
16	prone	prone	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 reason	nmod
17	to	to	PART	_	18 fracture	mark
18	fracture	fracture	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	16 prone	acl
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	stack	participle		bricks not said here	vertical alignment	vn spray-9.7-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in alignment=Destination
3	is a	present	the principal reason	prone		tree rules
4	fracture	to-infinitive	you not said here			vn break-45.1 «NP.patient V»: agent=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

Vertical towers are expressly prohibited by the manufacturer's instructions

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Vertical	vertical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 towers	amod
2	towers	tower	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 prohibited	nsubj:pass
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 prohibited	aux:pass
4	expressly	expressly	ADV	_	5 prohibited	advmod
5	prohibited	prohibit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	by	by	ADP	_	10 instructions	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 manufacturer	det
8	manufacturer	manufacturer	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 instructions	nmod:poss
9	's	's	PART	_	8 manufacturer	case
10	instructions	instruction	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 prohibited	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prohibit	present · passive	the manufacturer's instructions	Vertical towers				expressly property	vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer subject=Theme
2	instruct		the manufacturer						nom instruction «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The joins align, forming weak lines

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 joins	det
2	joins	join	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 align	nsubj
3	align	align	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 forming	punct
5	forming	form	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 align	advcl
6	weak	weak	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 lines	amod
7	lines	line	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 forming	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	align	infinitive	the joins						tree rules
2	form	gerund	the joins not said here	weak lines					vn appear-48.1.1 «PP.location V NP»: agent=Location line=Theme

Option 3

The quantity of bricks employed in its construction is insufficient

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 quantity	det
2	quantity	quantity	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 insufficient	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 bricks	case
4	bricks	brick	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 quantity	nmod
5	employed	employ	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 bricks	acl
6	in	in	ADP	_	8 construction	case
7	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 construction	nmod:poss
8	construction	construction	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 employed	obl
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 insufficient	cop
10	insufficient	insufficient	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	employ	participle		bricks not said here	quantity's construction		vn hire-13.5.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	is	present	the quantity of bricks			insufficient property	tree rules
3	construct		quantity				nom construction «act transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4

The bricks are brittle metal

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 bricks	det
2	bricks	brick	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 metal	nsubj
3	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 metal	cop
4	brittle	brittle	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 metal	amod
5	metal	metal	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	the bricks	brittle metal					tree rules

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/arts/32-lego-builds-instructions-vs-your-own-ideas/e1/