Exam question 2 · The desert: living with little water

Identify the principal reason for which desert temperatures may decline below freezing during the night.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, desert temperatures · What happens: identify, decline · To what, where: principal reason, freezing

This is exam question 2 of lesson 5 «The desert: living with little water» 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	10 decline	obl
7	desert	desert	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 temperatures	compound
8	temperatures	temperature	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 decline	nsubj
9	may	may	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	10 decline	aux
10	decline	decline	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 reason	parataxis
11	below	below	ADP	_	12 freezing	case
12	freezing	freezing	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 decline	obl
13	during	during	ADP	_	15 night	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 night	det
15	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 decline	obl
16	.	.	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	decline	may	desert temperatures			freezing	night	for the principal reason	vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

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 sand generates cold during the hours of darkness

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 sand	det
2	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 generates	nsubj
3	generates	generate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 generates	xcomp
5	during	during	ADP	_	7 hours	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 hours	det
7	hours	hour	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 generates	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 darkness	case
9	darkness	darkness	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 hours	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	generate	present	the sand				hour	cold property	vn grow-26.2.1 «NP.patient V PP.product»: agent=Patient

Option 2

The Sun is positioned nearer to the Earth by day

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Sun	det
2	Sun	Sun	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 positioned	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 positioned	aux:pass
4	positioned	position	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	nearer	near	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	4 positioned	xcomp
6	to	to	ADP	_	8 Earth	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Earth	det
8	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 positioned	obl
9	by	by	ADP	_	10 day	case
10	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 positioned	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	position	present · passive		the Sun			day	to the Earth; near property	vn put-9.1 «NP V NP ADVP»: subject=Destination

Option 3

Glacial winds traverse every desert nightly from the polar regions and from the mountains of the interior

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Glacial	glacial	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 winds	amod
2	winds	wind	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 traverse	nsubj
3	traverse	traverse	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	5 desert	det
5	desert	desert	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 traverse	obj
6	nightly	nightly	ADV	_	3 traverse	advmod
7	from	from	ADP	_	10 regions	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 regions	det
9	polar	polar	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 regions	amod
10	regions	region	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 traverse	obl
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	14 mountains	cc
12	from	from	ADP	_	14 mountains	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 mountains	det
14	mountains	mountain	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 regions	conj
15	of	of	ADP	_	17 interior	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 interior	det
17	interior	interior	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 mountains	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	traverse	present	Glacial winds	every desert		the polar regions and the mountains of the interior		nightly property	vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme desert=Co-Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

In the absence of atmospheric moisture and cloud, the heat of the ground escapes freely into space

The tree, 17 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	In	in	ADP	_	3 absence	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 absence	det
3	absence	absence	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 escapes	obl
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 moisture	case
5	atmospheric	atmospheric	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 moisture	compound
6	moisture	moisture	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 absence	nmod
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 cloud	cc
8	cloud	cloud	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 moisture	conj
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 absence	punct
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 heat	det
11	heat	heat	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 escapes	nsubj
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 ground	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 ground	det
14	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 heat	nmod
15	escapes	escape	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
16	freely	freely	ADV	_	15 escapes	advmod
17	into	into	ADP	_	18 space	case
18	space	space	NOUN	Number=Sing	15 escapes	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	escape	present	the heat of the ground		the absence of atmospheric moisture and cloud	into space; freely property	vn escape-51.1-1-1 «NP V PP.initial_location»: agent=Theme into space=Initial_Location
2	absent			atmospheric moisture and cloud			nom absence «state transitive»: of=patient
3	heat		the ground				nom heat «phenomenon intransitive»: of=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/biology/5-the-desert/e2/