Exam question 1 · The Arctic and Antarctica

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the Arctic region in contradistinction to the Antarctic?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · What happens: follow, characteris · To what, where: Arctic region, contradistinction

This is exam question 1 of lesson 15 «The Arctic and Antarctica» of the geography 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 region	det
10	Arctic	Arctic	PROPN	Number=Sing	11 region	compound
11	region	region	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
12	in	in	ADP	_	13 contradistinction	case
13	contradistinction	contradistinction	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 region	nmod
14	to	to	ADP	_	16 Antarctic	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 Antarctic	det
16	Antarctic	Antarctic	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 contradistinction	nmod
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the Arctic region		contradistinction to the Antarctic		of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules

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 Arctic comprises a continent, whereas Antarctica comprises an ocean

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Arctic	det
2	Arctic	Arctic	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 comprises	nsubj
3	comprises	comprise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 continent	det
5	continent	continent	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 comprises	obj
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 comprises	punct
7	whereas	whereas	SCONJ	_	9 comprises	mark
8	Antarctica	Antarctica	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 comprises	nsubj
9	comprises	comprise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 comprises	conj
10	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 ocean	det
11	ocean	ocean	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 comprises	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	comprise	present	the Arctic	a continent					vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme continent=Pivot
2	comprise	present	Antarctica	a ocean					vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme ocean=Pivot

Option 2

Both regions comprise frozen oceans devoid of land

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	2 regions	det
2	regions	region	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 comprise	nsubj
3	comprise	comprise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	frozen	freeze	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 oceans	amod
5	oceans	ocean	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 comprise	obj
6	devoid	devoid	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 comprise	xcomp
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 land	case
8	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 devoid	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	comprise	present	both regions	frozen oceans				devoid property	vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme ocean=Pivot
2	freeze	participle							vn other_cos-45.4-1 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Both regions comprise ice-covered continents

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	2 regions	det
2	regions	region	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 comprise	nsubj
3	comprise	comprise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	ice	ice	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 covered	compound
5	-	-	PUNCT	_	4 ice	punct
6	covered	cover	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 continents	amod
7	continents	continent	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 comprise	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	comprise	present	both regions	covered continents					vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme continent=Pivot
2	cover	participle							vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The Arctic comprises a frozen ocean encircled by land, whereas Antarctica comprises an ice-covered landmass encircled by ocean

The tree, 19 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Arctic	det
2	Arctic	Arctic	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 comprises	nsubj
3	comprises	comprise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 ocean	det
5	frozen	frozen	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 ocean	amod
6	ocean	ocean	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 comprises	obj
7	encircled	encircle	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 ocean	acl
8	by	by	ADP	_	9 land	case
9	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 encircled	obl
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 comprises	punct
11	whereas	whereas	SCONJ	_	13 comprises	mark
12	Antarctica	Antarctica	PROPN	Number=Sing	13 comprises	nsubj
13	comprises	comprise	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 comprises	conj
14	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	18 landmass	det
15	ice	ice	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 covered	compound
16	-	-	PUNCT	_	15 ice	punct
17	covered	cover	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	18 landmass	amod
18	landmass	landmass	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 comprises	obj
19	encircled	encircle	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	18 landmass	acl
20	by	by	ADP	_	21 ocean	case
21	ocean	ocean	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 encircled	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	comprise	present	the Arctic	a frozen ocean		vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme ocean=Pivot
2	encircle	participle		a frozen ocean not said here	by land	vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme
3	comprise	present	Antarctica	a covered landmass		vn comprise-107.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme landmass=Pivot
4	cover	participle				vn fill-9.8-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme
5	encircle	participle		a covered landmass not said here	by ocean	vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: 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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/15-the-arctic-and-antarctica/e1/