Exam question 1 · Illusions that fool the eye and adverts that fool the wallet

Identify the principal reason for which a straw placed in water appears bent.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, straw · What happens: identify, place, appear, bend · To what, where: principal reason, straw, water

This is exam question 1 of lesson 280 «Illusions that fool the eye and adverts that fool the wallet» 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	Identify	identify	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 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	12 appears	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 straw	det
8	straw	straw	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 appears	nsubj
9	placed	place	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 straw	acl
10	in	in	ADP	_	11 water	case
11	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 placed	obl
12	appears	appear	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl
13	bent	bend	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	12 appears	xcomp
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	place	participle		a straw not said here	water		vn put-9.1-2 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent in water=Destination
3	appear	present	a straw			for the principal reason	vn seem-109-1-1-1 «NP V S_INF»: agent=Theme clause=Attribute
4	bend	participle	a straw not said here				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

The water softens the straw and bends it

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 water	det
2	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 softens	nsubj
3	softens	soften	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 straw	det
5	straw	straw	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 softens	obj
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	7 bends	cc
7	bends	bend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 softens	conj
8	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	7 bends	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	soften	present	the water	the straw					vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent straw=Patient
2	bend	present	the water not said here	straw					vn knead-26.5 «NP V NP.material»: agent=Agent it=Material

Option 2 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Light changes direction passing from water to air, called refraction

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 changes	nsubj
2	changes	change	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	direction	direction	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 changes	obj
4	passing	pass	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 direction	acl
5	from	from	ADP	_	6 water	case
6	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 passing	obl
7	to	to	ADP	_	8 air	case
8	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 passing	obl
9	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 called	punct
10	called	call	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 changes	parataxis
11	refraction	refraction	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 called	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	change	present	Light	direction			vn dress-41.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent direction=Patient
2	pass	gerund	direction not said here		water	to air	vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V PP.initial_location PP.destination»: agent=Theme from water=Initial_Location to air=Destination
3	call	participle		refraction			vn initiate_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 3

The glass of the vessel magnifies only one portion of the straw

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 glass	det
2	glass	glass	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 magnifies	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 vessel	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 vessel	det
5	vessel	vessel	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 glass	nmod
6	magnifies	magnify	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	only	only	ADV	_	8 one	advmod
8	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	9 portion	nummod
9	portion	portion	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 magnifies	obj
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 straw	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 straw	det
12	straw	straw	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 portion	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	magnify	present	the glass of the vessel	one portion of the straw					vn remedy-45.7-1 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent portion=Patient

Option 4

The eye cannot focus through water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 eye	det
2	eye	eye	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 focus	nsubj
3	can	can	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 focus	aux
4	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	5 focus	advmod
5	focus	focus	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	through	through	ADP	_	7 water	case
7	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 focus	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not focus	can	the eye			water			vn focus-87.1 «NP V PP.topic»: 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/280-illusions-and-adverts/e1/