Exam question 2 · Console games, building, crafts, music and ball games

Identify the principal reason for which damp sand is preferred to dry sand for building sandcastles.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, prefer, dry · To what, where: principal reason, damp sand, sand

This is exam question 2 of lesson 303 «Console games, building, crafts, music and ball games» 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	10 preferred	obl
7	damp	damp	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 sand	amod
8	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 preferred	nsubj:pass
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 preferred	aux:pass
10	preferred	prefer	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl:relcl
11	to	to	PART	_	12 dry	mark
12	dry	dry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 preferred	advcl
13	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 dry	obj
14	for	for	ADP	_	16 sandcastles	case
15	building	building	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 sandcastles	compound
16	sandcastles	sandcastle	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 dry	obl
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	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	prefer	present · passive		damp sand	for the principal reason	vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Stimulus for which=Attribute
3	dry	to-infinitive		sand	for building sandcastles	vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Patient sand=Result

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

Dry sand is prohibited on beaches

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 sand	amod
2	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 prohibited	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 prohibited	aux:pass
4	prohibited	prohibit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	on	on	ADP	_	6 beaches	case
6	beaches	beach	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 prohibited	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	prohibit	present · passive		Dry sand		beaches			vn forbid-64.4-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 2

Dry sand is much heavier to carry

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Dry	dry	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 sand	amod
2	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 heavier	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 heavier	cop
4	much	much	ADV	_	5 heavier	advmod
5	heavier	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 carry	mark
7	carry	carry	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 heavier	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Dry sand					heavy property	tree rules
2	carry	to-infinitive	Dry sand not said here						vn carry-11.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 3

Wet sand is much warmer to touch

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Wet	wet	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 sand	amod
2	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 warmer	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 warmer	cop
4	much	much	ADV	_	5 warmer	advmod
5	warmer	warm	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
6	to	to	PART	_	7 touch	mark
7	touch	touch	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 warmer	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Wet sand					warm property	tree rules
2	touch	to-infinitive	Wet sand not said here						vn contiguous_location-47.8-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Wet sand holds its shape better

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Wet	wet	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 sand	amod
2	sand	sand	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 holds	nsubj
3	holds	hold	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 shape	nmod:poss
5	shape	shape	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 holds	obj
6	better	well	ADV	Degree=Cmp	3 holds	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hold	present	Wet sand	sand's shape				well property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent shape=Theme

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/303-console-games-building-crafts-and-music/e2/