Exam question 4 · The night sky and outdoor myths

Ascertain the cause of the northern and southern lights.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, cause · To what, where: cause, northern lights

This is exam question 4 of lesson 240 «The night sky and outdoor myths» of the everyday 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 cause	det
3	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	9 lights	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 lights	det
6	northern	northern	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 lights	amod
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 southern	cc
8	southern	southern	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 northern	conj
9	lights	light	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 cause	nmod
10	.	.	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 cause of the northern lights					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent cause=Topic
2	cause			the northern lights					nom cause «event 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

Lightning storms high above the clouds

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Lightning	lightning	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 storms	compound
2	storms	storm	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 high	nsubj
3	high	high	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
4	above	above	ADP	_	6 clouds	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 clouds	det
6	clouds	cloud	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 high	obl

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

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Particles from the Sun cause the air near the poles to glow

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Particles	particle	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 cause	nsubj
2	from	from	ADP	_	4 Sun	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 Sun	det
4	Sun	Sun	PROPN	Number=Sing	1 Particles	nmod
5	cause	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 air	det
7	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 cause	obj
8	near	near	ADP	_	10 poles	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 poles	det
10	poles	pole	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 cause	obl
11	to	to	PART	_	12 glow	mark
12	glow	glow	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 cause	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cause	present	Particles from the Sun	the air		the poles			vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition air=Patient
2	glow	to-infinitive	Particles from the Sun not said here						vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

Moonlight reflected from polar ice

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Moonlight	moonlight	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reflected	nsubj
2	reflected	reflect	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	from	from	ADP	_	5 ice	case
4	polar	polar	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 ice	amod
5	ice	ice	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reflected	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reflect	past	Moonlight			polar ice			vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

Fires burning in the far north

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fires	fire	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
2	burning	burn	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	1 Fires	acl
3	in	in	ADP	_	6 north	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 north	det
5	far	far	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 north	amod
6	north	north	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 burning	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	burn	gerund	Fires not said here			the far north			vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in north=Location

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/240-night-sky-and-outdoor-myths/e4/