Exam question 4 · The brain and nerves

Ascertain the principal means by which a protective helmet reduces injury to the brain upon impact.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, principal, protective helmet · What happens: ascertain, mean, reduce · To what, where: injury · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 4 of lesson 68 «The brain and nerves» 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 principal	det
3	principal	principal	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 means	nsubj
4	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Ascertain	ccomp
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 reduces	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 helmet	det
8	protective	protective	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 helmet	amod
9	helmet	helmet	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 reduces	nsubj
10	reduces	reduce	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 means	ccomp
11	injury	injury	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 reduces	obj
12	to	to	ADP	_	14 brain	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 brain	det
14	brain	brain	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 reduces	obl
15	upon	upon	ADP	_	16 impact	case
16	impact	impact	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 brain	nmod
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here			vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
2	mean	present	the principal			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	reduce	present	a protective helmet	injury	to the brain upon impact result	vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2 «NP V NP.patient PP.extent PP.initial_state PP.result»: agent=Causer injury=Patient by which=Extent to brain=Result

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

It cools the brain upon impact

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 cools	nsubj
2	cools	cool	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 brain	det
4	brain	brain	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 cools	obj
5	upon	upon	ADP	_	6 impact	case
6	impact	impact	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 cools	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cool	present	It	the brain				upon impact	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent brain=Patient

Option 2

It prevents the head from moving at all

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 prevents	nsubj
2	prevents	prevent	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 head	det
4	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 prevents	obj
5	from	from	SCONJ	_	6 moving	mark
6	moving	move	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 prevents	advcl
7	at	at	ADP	_	8 all	case
8	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	6 moving	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prevent	present	It	the head					vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer head=Theme
2	move	gerund				all			vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme at all=Trajectory

Option 3

It renders the skull permanently thicker after each impact

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 renders	nsubj
2	renders	render	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 skull	det
4	skull	skull	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 renders	obj
5	permanently	permanently	ADV	_	6 thicker	advmod
6	thicker	thick	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	2 renders	advmod
7	after	after	ADP	_	9 impact	case
8	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	9 impact	det
9	impact	impact	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 renders	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	render	present	It	the skull			after each impact		vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent skull=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Its foam deforms, decelerating the head more gradually

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 foam	nmod:poss
2	foam	foam	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 deforms	nsubj
3	deforms	deform	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	5 decelerating	punct
5	decelerating	decelerate	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 deforms	advcl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 head	det
7	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 decelerating	obj
8	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	9 gradually	advmod
9	gradually	gradually	ADV	_	5 decelerating	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	deform	present	Its foam						vn turn-26.6.1 «NP V»: agent=Patient
2	decelerate	gerund	Its foam not said here	the head				gradually property	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent head=Patient

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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