Exam question 4 · Canals: Suez, Panama and the shortcuts

Given that each transit of the Panama Canal consumes approximately two hundred million litres of fresh water, determine the consequence of a severe drought such as that of 2023.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: transit, you · What happens: give, consume, determine · To what, where: million litres, consequence

This is exam question 4 of lesson 20 «Canals: Suez, Panama and the shortcuts» 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	Given	give	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 consumes	mark
2	that	that	SCONJ	_	9 consumes	mark
3	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	4 transit	det
4	transit	transit	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 consumes	nsubj
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 Canal	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Canal	det
7	Panama	Panama	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 Canal	compound
8	Canal	Canal	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 transit	nmod
9	consumes	consume	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	19 determine	advcl
10	approximately	approximately	ADV	_	13 million	advmod
11	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	12 hundred	compound
12	hundred	hundred	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	13 million	compound
13	million	million	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	14 litres	nummod
14	litres	litre	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 consumes	obj
15	of	of	ADP	_	17 water	case
16	fresh	fresh	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 water	amod
17	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 litres	nmod
18	,	,	PUNCT	_	19 determine	punct
19	determine	determine	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
20	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	21 consequence	det
21	consequence	consequence	NOUN	Number=Sing	19 determine	obj
22	of	of	ADP	_	25 drought	case
23	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	25 drought	det
24	severe	severe	ADJ	Degree=Pos	25 drought	amod
25	drought	drought	NOUN	Number=Sing	21 consequence	nmod
26	such	such	ADJ	Degree=Pos ExtPos=ADP	28 that	case
27	as	as	ADP	_	26 such	fixed
28	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	25 drought	nmod
29	of	of	ADP	_	30 2023	case
30	2023	2023	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	28 that	nmod
31	.	.	PUNCT	_	19 determine	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	give	participle			vn break_down-45.8 «NP V»: agent=Patient
2	consume	present	each transit of the Panama Canal	million litres of fresh water	vn consume-66 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent litre=Asset
3	determine	imperative	you not said here	the consequence of a severe drought such that	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent consequence=Topic

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

No consequence whatsoever ensues

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	DET	PronType=Neg	2 consequence	det
2	consequence	consequence	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 ensues	nsubj
3	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	4 ensues	advmod
4	ensues	ensue	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ensue	present	no consequence					whatsoever property	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

The duration of each transit is reduced by one half

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 duration	det
2	duration	duration	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 reduced	nsubj:pass
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 transit	case
4	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	5 transit	det
5	transit	transit	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 duration	nmod
6	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 reduced	aux:pass
7	reduced	reduce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
8	by	by	ADP	_	10 half	case
9	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	10 half	nummod
10	half	half	NOUN	Number=Sing NumForm=Word NumType=Frac	7 reduced	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	reduce	present · passive	one half	the duration of each transit					vn limit-76 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer subject=Patient

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

The number of vessels permitted to transit the canal is restricted

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 number	det
2	number	number	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 restricted	nsubj:pass
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 vessels	case
4	vessels	vessel	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 number	nmod
5	permitted	permit	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 vessels	acl
6	to	to	PART	_	7 transit	mark
7	transit	transit	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 permitted	xcomp
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 canal	det
9	canal	canal	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 transit	obj
10	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 restricted	aux:pass
11	restricted	restrict	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	roles by
1	permit	participle	vessels not said here	vn allow-64.1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Causer clause=Eventuality
2	transit not said to happen	to-infinitive	the canal	tree rules
3	restrict	present · passive	the number of vessels	vn limit-76 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient

Option 4

The canal is filled with sea water, whereupon transits increase

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 canal	det
2	canal	canal	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 filled	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 filled	aux:pass
4	filled	fill	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	with	with	ADP	_	7 water	case
6	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 water	compound
7	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 filled	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 increase	punct
9	whereupon	whereupon	ADV	PronType=Int	11 increase	advmod
10	transits	transit	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 increase	nsubj
11	increase	increase	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	7 water	acl:relcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fill	present · passive		the canal				with sea water	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: subject=Patient with water=Instrument
2	increase	present	transits					whereupon property	vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient

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/20-canals-suez-panama-and-the-shortcuts/e4/