Exam question 4 · Airports and planes

Ascertain the measure most likely to relieve discomfort of the ears during the descent of an aircraft.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, aircraft · What happens: ascertain, relieve, descend · To what, where: measure, discomfort

This is exam question 4 of lesson 271 «Airports and planes» 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 measure	det
3	measure	measure	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	5 likely	advmod
5	likely	likely	ADV	_	1 Ascertain	advmod
6	to	to	PART	_	7 relieve	mark
7	relieve	relieve	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	1 Ascertain	advcl
8	discomfort	discomfort	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 relieve	obj
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 ears	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 ears	det
11	ears	ear	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 discomfort	nmod
12	during	during	ADP	_	14 descent	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 descent	det
14	descent	descent	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 relieve	obl
15	of	of	ADP	_	17 aircraft	case
16	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	17 aircraft	det
17	aircraft	aircraft	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 descent	nmod
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the measure		likely property	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent measure=Topic
2	relieve	to-infinitive	you not said here	discomfort of the ears	during the descent of a aircraft		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus discomfort=Experiencer
3	descend		a aircraft				nom descent «event intransitive»: of=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

Covering the ears tightly with both hands

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Covering	cover	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 ears	det
3	ears	ear	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Covering	obj
4	tightly	tightly	ADV	_	1 Covering	advmod
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 hands	case
6	both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	7 hands	det
7	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Covering	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cover	gerund		the ears				with both hands; tightly property	vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent ear=Destination with hand=Theme

Option 2

Resting the head against the cabin window

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Resting	rest	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 head	det
3	head	head	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Resting	obj
4	against	against	ADP	_	7 window	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 window	det
6	cabin	cabin	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 window	compound
7	window	window	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Resting	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	rest	gerund		the head		the cabin window			vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V NP.theme PP»: agent=Agent head=Theme against window=Location

Option 3

Holding the breath until the aircraft has come to rest upon the runway

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Holding	hold	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 breath	det
3	breath	breath	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Holding	obj
4	until	until	SCONJ	_	8 come	mark
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 aircraft	det
6	aircraft	aircraft	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 come	nsubj
7	has	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 come	aux
8	come	come	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	1 Holding	advcl
9	to	to	PART	_	10 rest	mark
10	rest	rest	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 come	advcl
11	upon	upon	ADP	_	13 runway	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 runway	det
13	runway	runway	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 rest	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	hold	gerund		the breath		vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent breath=Theme
2	come	present · perfect	the aircraft			vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	rest	to-infinitive	the aircraft not said here		the runway	vn spatial_configuration-47.6-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon runway=Location

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Swallowing, yawning or chewing to equalise the pressure

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Swallowing	swallow	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
2	,	,	PUNCT	_	3 yawning	punct
3	yawning	yawn	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 Swallowing	conj
4	or	or	CCONJ	_	5 chewing	cc
5	chewing	chew	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	1 Swallowing	conj
6	to	to	PART	_	7 equalise	mark
7	equalise	equalise	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 chewing	xcomp
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 pressure	det
9	pressure	pressure	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 equalise	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	roles by
1	swallow	gerund		vn hiccup-40.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	yawn	gerund		vn nonverbal_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	chew	gerund		tree rules
4	equalise	to-infinitive	the pressure	tree rules

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.

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