Exam question 4 · Gases all around: breath and balloons

Ascertain the reason for which a helium balloon of rubber diminishes in size over several days.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, helium balloon · What happens: ascertain, diminish · To what, where: reason, size

This is exam question 4 of lesson 20 «Gases all around: breath and balloons» 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 diminishes	obl
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 balloon	det
7	helium	helium	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 balloon	compound
8	balloon	balloon	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 diminishes	nsubj
9	of	of	ADP	_	10 rubber	case
10	rubber	rubber	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 balloon	nmod
11	diminishes	diminish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	acl
12	in	in	ADP	_	13 size	case
13	size	size	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 diminishes	obl
14	over	over	ADP	_	16 days	case
15	several	several	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 days	amod
16	days	day	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 diminishes	obl
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the reason					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	diminish	present	a helium balloon of rubber			size	day	for the reason	vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: 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

Atmospheric pressure crushes the balloon

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Atmospheric	atmospheric	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pressure	compound
2	pressure	pressure	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 crushes	nsubj
3	crushes	crush	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 balloon	det
5	balloon	balloon	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 crushes	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	crush	present	Atmospheric pressure	the balloon					vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent balloon=Patient

Option 2

The rubber absorbs the helium chemically

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 rubber	det
2	rubber	rubber	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 absorbs	nsubj
3	absorbs	absorb	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 helium	det
5	helium	helium	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 absorbs	obj
6	chemically	chemically	ADV	_	3 absorbs	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	absorb	present	the rubber	the helium				chemically property	vn absorb-39.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Goal helium=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Helium atoms pass through minute gaps in the rubber

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Helium	helium	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 atoms	compound
2	atoms	atom	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 pass	nsubj
3	pass	pass	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	through	through	ADP	_	6 gaps	case
5	minute	minute	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 gaps	compound
6	gaps	gap	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 pass	obl
7	in	in	ADP	_	9 rubber	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 rubber	det
9	rubber	rubber	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 pass	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pass	present	Helium atoms			minute gaps		in the rubber	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme through gap=Location

Option 4

Helium is converted into water vapour

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Helium	helium	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 converted	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 converted	aux:pass
3	converted	convert	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	into	into	ADP	_	6 vapour	case
5	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 vapour	compound
6	vapour	vapour	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 converted	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	convert	present · passive		Helium				into water vapour result	vn turn-26.6.1-1 «NP V NP.patient PP.result»: subject=Patient into vapour=Result

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/20-gases-all-around-breath-and-balloons/e4/