Exam question 4 · Browning apples, rotting and mould

Ascertain the principle by which salt, sugar and drying preserve food.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, preserve · To what, where: principle, food

This is exam question 4 of lesson 23 «Browning apples, rotting and mould» 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 principle	det
3	principle	principle	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	by	by	ADP	_	6 salt	case
5	which	which	DET	PronType=Int	6 salt	det
6	salt	salt	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 preserve	obl
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 sugar	punct
8	sugar	sugar	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 salt	conj
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 drying	cc
10	drying	drying	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 salt	conj
11	preserve	preserve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Ascertain	parataxis
12	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 preserve	obj
13	.	.	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 principle					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent principle=Topic
2	preserve	present		food				by which salt and sugar and drying	vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent food=Beneficiary

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

They raise the temperature of the food

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 raise	nsubj
2	raise	raise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 temperature	det
4	temperature	temperature	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 raise	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 food	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 food	det
7	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 temperature	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	raise	present	They	the temperature of the food					vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent temperature=Theme

Option 2

They supply oxygen that destroys germs

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 supply	nsubj
2	supply	supply	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	oxygen	oxygen	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 supply	obj
4	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	5 destroys	nsubj
5	destroys	destroy	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 oxygen	acl:relcl
6	germs	germ	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 destroys	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	supply	present	They	oxygen					vn fulfilling-13.4.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent oxygen=Recipient
2	destroy	present	oxygen	germs					vn destroy-44 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent germ=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

They deprive germs of the water they require

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 deprive	nsubj
2	deprive	deprive	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	germs	germ	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 deprive	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 water	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 water	det
6	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 germs	nmod
7	they	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 require	nsubj
8	require	require	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 water	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	deprive	present	They	germs of the water					vn deprive-10.6.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent germ=Source
2	require	present	germs = germ	the water not said here					vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme water=Precondition

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

They convert the food into a mineral

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 convert	nsubj
2	convert	convert	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 food	det
4	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 convert	obj
5	into	into	ADP	_	7 mineral	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 mineral	det
7	mineral	mineral	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 convert	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	convert	present	They	the food				into a mineral result	vn turn-26.6.1-1 «NP V NP.patient PP.result»: agent=Agent food=Patient into mineral=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/23-browning-apples-rotting-and-mould/e4/