Exam question 1 · Tarnish and how metals change

Identify the principal cause of the darkening of silver tableware in ordinary domestic conditions.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, cause, darken · To what, where: principal cause, darkening, silver tableware

This is exam question 1 of lesson 14 «Tarnish and how metals change» of the chemistry 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 cause	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 cause	amod
4	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 darkening	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 darkening	det
7	darkening	darkening	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 cause	nmod
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 tableware	case
9	silver	silver	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 tableware	compound
10	tableware	tableware	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 darkening	nmod
11	in	in	ADP	_	14 conditions	case
12	ordinary	ordinary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 conditions	amod
13	domestic	domestic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	14 conditions	amod
14	conditions	condition	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 tableware	nmod
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal cause of the darkening of silver tableware in ordinary domestic conditions	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent cause=Theme
2	cause			the darkening of silver tableware in ordinary domestic conditions	nom cause «event transitive»: of=patient
3	darken			silver tableware in ordinary domestic conditions	nom darkening «act transitive»: of=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

Absorption of moisture from the atmosphere

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Absorption	absorption	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	of	of	ADP	_	3 moisture	case
3	moisture	moisture	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Absorption	nmod
4	from	from	ADP	_	6 atmosphere	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 atmosphere	det
6	atmosphere	atmosphere	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Absorption	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	absorb			moisture		the atmosphere			nom absorption «process transitive»: of=patient from=place

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Reaction with sulphur-containing gases in the air

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Reaction	reaction	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	with	with	ADP	_	6 gases	case
3	sulphur	sulphur	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 containing	compound
4	-	-	PUNCT	_	3 sulphur	punct
5	containing	contain	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 gases	amod
6	gases	gas	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Reaction	nmod
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 air	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 air	det
9	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 gases	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	contain	gerund							vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot

Option 3

Contact with oxygen alone in dry air, as in the rusting of iron

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Contact	contact	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	with	with	ADP	_	3 oxygen	case
3	oxygen	oxygen	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Contact	nmod
4	alone	alone	ADV	_	1 Contact	advmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 air	case
6	dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 air	amod
7	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Contact	nmod
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 rusting	punct
9	as	as	ADP	_	12 rusting	case
10	in	in	ADP	_	12 rusting	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 rusting	det
12	rusting	rusting	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Contact	conj
13	of	of	ADP	_	14 iron	case
14	iron	iron	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 rusting	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

Exposure to excessive quantities of light

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Exposure	exposure	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	to	to	ADP	_	4 quantities	case
3	excessive	excessive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 quantities	amod
4	quantities	quantity	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Exposure	nmod
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 light	case
6	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 quantities	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

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/chemistry/14-tarnish-and-how-metals-change/e1/