Exam question 4 · Water: the most amazing liquid

Ascertain the principal reason for which the ocean is saline.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, ocean · What happens: ascertain, be · To what, where: principal reason

This is exam question 4 of lesson 34 «Water: the most amazing liquid» 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	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 saline	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 ocean	det
8	ocean	ocean	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 saline	nsubj
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 saline	cop
10	saline	saline	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	acl
11	.	.	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 principal reason					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	is	present	the ocean					for the principal reason; saline property	tree rules

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

Marine animals secrete salt continuously

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Marine	marine	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 animals	amod
2	animals	animal	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
3	secrete	secrete	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 salt	amod
4	salt	salt	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 animals	conj
5	continuously	continuously	ADV	_	2 animals	advmod

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

Option 2

Salt is deposited from the clouds by rain

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Salt	salt	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 deposited	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 deposited	aux:pass
3	deposited	deposit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	from	from	ADP	_	6 clouds	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 clouds	det
6	clouds	cloud	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 deposited	obl
7	by	by	ADP	_	8 rain	case
8	rain	rain	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 deposited	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	deposit	present · passive	rain	Salt		the clouds			vn put-9.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme

Option 3

The ocean floor consists of pure salt

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 floor	det
2	ocean	ocean	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 floor	compound
3	floor	floor	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 consists	nsubj
4	consists	consist	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 salt	case
6	pure	pure	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 salt	amod
7	salt	salt	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 consists	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	consist	present	the ocean floor					of pure salt	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Salts carried from rocks by rivers remain when water evaporates

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Salts	salt	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 carried	nsubj
2	carried	carry	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	from	from	ADP	_	4 rocks	case
4	rocks	rock	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 carried	obl
5	by	by	SCONJ	_	7 remain	mark
6	rivers	river	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 remain	nsubj
7	remain	remain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	2 carried	ccomp
8	when	when	SCONJ	_	10 evaporates	mark
9	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 evaporates	nsubj
10	evaporates	evaporate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 remain	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	roles by
1	carry	past	Salts	rocks	tree rules
2	remain	present	rivers		vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	evaporate	present	water		vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/chemistry/34-water-amazing-liquid/e4/