Exam question 2 · Thinking it through: the science behind home safety

Identify the principal reason for which water must not be thrown upon burning oil.

Mova's choice: option 2 · The right answer: option 2 · right ✓ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, not throw, burn · To what, where: principal reason, water, burning oil

This is exam question 2 of lesson 40 «Thinking it through: the science behind home safety» 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	11 thrown	obl
7	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 thrown	nsubj:pass
8	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 thrown	aux
9	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	11 thrown	advmod
10	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	11 thrown	aux:pass
11	thrown	throw	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl:relcl
12	upon	upon	ADP	_	14 oil	case
13	burning	burn	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	14 oil	amod
14	oil	oil	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 thrown	obl
15	.	.	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	not throw	must · passive		water	burning oil	for the principal reason	vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.destinations»: subject=Theme upon oil=Destination
3	burn	gerund					vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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 cools the oil too slowly to help

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 cools	nsubj
3	cools	cool	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 oil	det
5	oil	oil	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 cools	obj
6	too	too	ADV	_	7 slowly	advmod
7	slowly	slowly	ADV	_	3 cools	advmod
8	to	to	PART	_	9 help	mark
9	help	help	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	7 slowly	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cool	present	the water	the oil				slowly property	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent oil=Patient
2	help	to-infinitive	the water not said here						vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Agent

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

The water sinks beneath the oil and turns violently to steam, throwing out burning oil

The tree, 15 words

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 sinks	nsubj
3	sinks	sink	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	beneath	beneath	ADP	_	6 oil	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 oil	det
6	oil	oil	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 sinks	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 turns	cc
8	turns	turn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 sinks	conj
9	violently	violently	ADV	_	8 turns	advmod
10	to	to	ADP	_	11 steam	case
11	steam	steam	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 turns	obl
12	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 throwing	punct
13	throwing	throw	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	3 sinks	advcl
14	out	out	ADP	_	13 throwing	compound:prt
15	burning	burn	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	16 oil	amod
16	oil	oil	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 throwing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	sink	present	the water			beneath the oil	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
2	turn	present	the water not said here		steam	violently property	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme to steam=Trajectory
3	throw out	gerund	the water not said here	burning oil			vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent oil=Theme
4	burn	gerund					vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

The water causes the pan to melt immediately

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 causes	nsubj
3	causes	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 pan	det
5	pan	pan	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 causes	obj
6	to	to	PART	_	7 melt	mark
7	melt	melt	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 causes	advcl
8	immediately	immediately	ADV	_	7 melt	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cause	present	the water	the pan					vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition pan=Patient
2	melt	to-infinitive	the water not said here					immediately property	vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 4

The water mixes with the oil and makes it burn more slowly, so that the fire spreads further

The tree, 18 words

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 mixes	nsubj
3	mixes	mix	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	with	with	ADP	_	6 oil	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 oil	det
6	oil	oil	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 mixes	obl
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 makes	cc
8	makes	make	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 mixes	conj
9	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	8 makes	obj
10	burn	burn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	8 makes	xcomp
11	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	12 slowly	advmod
12	slowly	slowly	ADV	_	10 burn	advmod
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	18 spreads	punct
14	so	so	SCONJ	ExtPos=SCONJ	18 spreads	mark
15	that	that	SCONJ	_	14 so	fixed
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 fire	det
17	fire	fire	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 spreads	nsubj
18	spreads	spread	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 mixes	conj
19	further	far	ADV	Degree=Cmp	18 spreads	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	mix	present	the water		with the oil	vn mix-22.1-1-1 «NP V PP.co-patient»: agent=Patient with oil=Co-Patient
2	make	present	the water not said here	water		tree rules
3	burn	infinitive	water not said here		slowly property	vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
4	spread	present	the fire		far property	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V»: agent=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.

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