Test 7 · ★ · Balance and falling well

Why is it easier to balance on a bus if you stand sideways with feet apart?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: it, you · What happens: be, balance, stand · To what, where: bus

This is test 7 · ★ of lesson 2 «Balance and falling well» of the everyday course of Mova's primary school. 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	4 easier	advmod
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 easier	cop
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 easier	nsubj
4	easier	easy	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 balance	mark
6	balance	balance	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 easier	xcomp
7	on	on	ADP	_	9 bus	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 bus	det
9	bus	bus	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 balance	obl
10	if	if	SCONJ	_	12 stand	mark
11	you	you	PRON	Case=Nom Person=2 PronType=Prs	12 stand	nsubj
12	stand	stand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=2 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 balance	advcl
13	sideways	sideways	ADV	_	12 stand	advmod
14	with	with	ADP	_	15 feet	case
15	feet	foot	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 stand	obl
16	apart	apart	ADV	_	12 stand	advmod
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 easier	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	where	other	roles by
1	is	present	it		easy property	tree rules
2	balance	to-infinitive		a bus		vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme on bus=Location
3	stand a condition, not said to happen	present	you		with feet; apart, sideways property	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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

Standing sideways makes the bus smoother

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Standing	stand	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 makes	csubj
2	sideways	sideways	ADV	_	1 Standing	advmod
3	makes	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 smoother	det
5	bus	bus	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 smoother	compound
6	smoother	smoother	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 makes	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	stand	gerund						sideways property	vn assuming_position-50 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	make	present	Standing	the bus smoother					vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset smoother=Product

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Your base is wider in the direction the bus jolts

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 base	nmod:poss
2	base	base	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 wider	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 wider	cop
4	wider	wide	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 direction	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 direction	det
7	direction	direction	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 wider	obl
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 jolts	det
9	bus	bus	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 jolts	compound
10	jolts	jolt	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 direction	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Your base			the direction the bus jolts		wide property	tree rules

Option 3

It makes you heavier on the floor

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 makes	nsubj
2	makes	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	you	you	PRON	Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs	2 makes	obj
4	heavier	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	2 makes	xcomp
5	on	on	ADP	_	7 floor	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 floor	det
7	floor	floor	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 makes	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	make	present	It	you		the floor		heavy property	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.material V NP»: agent=Material you=Product

Option 4

Your inner ear works better sideways

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Your	your	PRON	Case=Gen Person=2 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	3 ear	nmod:poss
2	inner	inner	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 ear	amod
3	ear	ear	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 works	nsubj
4	works	work	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	better	well	ADV	Degree=Cmp	4 works	advmod
6	sideways	sideways	ADV	_	4 works	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	work	present	Your inner ear					sideways, well property	vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/everyday/2-balance-and-falling-well/t7/