Exam question 1 · Mountains: life as you climb higher

Identify the principal reason for which mountaineers experience breathlessness at high altitude.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, mountaineers · What happens: identify, experience · To what, where: principal reason, breathlessness, high altitude

This is exam question 1 of lesson 13 «Mountains: life as you climb higher» 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.

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	8 experience	obl
7	mountaineers	mountaineer	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 experience	nsubj
8	experience	experience	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl:relcl
9	breathlessness	breathlessness	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 experience	obj
10	at	at	ADP	_	12 altitude	case
11	high	high	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 altitude	amod
12	altitude	altitude	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 experience	obl
13	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	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	experience	present	mountaineers	breathlessness		high altitude		for the principal reason	vn sight-30.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer breathlessness=Stimulus

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

The air at altitude contains a greater proportion of dust

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 air	det
2	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 contains	nsubj
3	at	at	ADP	_	4 altitude	case
4	altitude	altitude	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 air	nmod
5	contains	contain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 proportion	det
7	greater	great	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	8 proportion	amod
8	proportion	proportion	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 contains	obj
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 dust	case
10	dust	dust	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 proportion	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	contain	present	the air at altitude	a greater proportion of dust					vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot proportion=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The reduced density of the air diminishes the oxygen obtained in each breath

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 density	det
2	reduced	reduce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 density	amod
3	density	density	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 diminishes	nsubj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 air	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 air	det
6	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 density	nmod
7	diminishes	diminish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 oxygen	det
9	oxygen	oxygen	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 diminishes	obj
10	obtained	obtain	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 oxygen	acl
11	in	in	ADP	_	13 breath	case
12	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	13 breath	det
13	breath	breath	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 obtained	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	reduce	participle				vn limit-76 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer
2	diminish	present	the reduced density of the air	the oxygen		vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Causer oxygen=Patient
3	obtain	participle		the oxygen not said here	each breath	vn obtain-13.5.2-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset

Option 3

The force of gravity is substantially greater upon mountains

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 force	det
2	force	force	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 greater	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 gravity	case
4	gravity	gravity	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 force	nmod
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 greater	cop
6	substantially	substantially	ADV	_	7 greater	advmod
7	greater	great	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
8	upon	upon	ADP	_	9 mountains	case
9	mountains	mountain	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 greater	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the force of gravity					upon mountains; great, substantially property	tree rules

Option 4

The proximity of the Sun renders the air excessively warm for respiration

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 proximity	det
2	proximity	proximity	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 renders	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 Sun	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 Sun	det
5	Sun	Sun	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 proximity	nmod
6	renders	render	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 air	det
8	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 renders	obj
9	excessively	excessively	ADV	_	10 warm	advmod
10	warm	warm	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 air	amod
11	for	for	ADP	_	12 respiration	case
12	respiration	respiration	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 warm	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	render	present	the proximity of the Sun	the air					vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent air=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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