Test 5 · ★★★ · Canals: Suez, Panama and the shortcuts

What would happen if the Panama Canal's lake ran low in a long drought?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: lake · What happens: happen, run · To what, where: long drought

This is test 5 · ★★★ of lesson 20 «Canals: Suez, Panama and the shortcuts» of the geography course of Mova's primary school. 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 happen	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	if	if	SCONJ	_	10 ran	mark
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 Canal	det
6	Panama	Panama	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 Canal	compound
7	Canal	Canal	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 lake	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 Canal	case
9	lake	lake	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 ran	nsubj
10	ran	run	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	advcl
11	low	low	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 ran	xcomp
12	in	in	ADP	_	15 drought	case
13	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 drought	det
14	long	long	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 drought	amod
15	drought	drought	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 ran	obl
16	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	run a condition, not said to happen	past	the Panama Canal's lake			a long drought		low property	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in drought=Trajectory

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

Ships would sail faster, because shallow water slows them down less

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ships	ship	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 sail	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 sail	aux
3	sail	sail	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	faster	fast	ADV	Degree=Cmp	3 sail	advmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 slows	punct
6	because	because	SCONJ	_	9 slows	mark
7	shallow	shallow	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 water	amod
8	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 slows	nsubj
9	slows	slow	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 sail	advcl
10	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	9 slows	obj
11	down	down	ADP	_	9 slows	compound:prt
12	less	less	ADV	Degree=Cmp	9 slows	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sail	would	Ships					fast property	vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme
2	slow down	present	shallow water	Ships = ship				less property	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent they=Patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

Fewer ships could pass, because the locks need lots of fresh water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fewer	few	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	2 ships	amod
2	ships	ship	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 pass	nsubj
3	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 pass	aux
4	pass	pass	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 need	punct
6	because	because	SCONJ	_	9 need	mark
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 locks	det
8	locks	lock	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 need	nsubj
9	need	need	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 pass	parataxis
10	lots	lot	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 need	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 water	case
12	fresh	fresh	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 water	amod
13	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 lots	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pass	could	Fewer ships						vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	need	present	the locks	lots of fresh water					vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot lot=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Nothing at all, because the locks are worked with no water whatsoever

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	root	root
2	at	at	ADP	_	3 all	case
3	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	1 Nothing	nmod
4	,	,	PUNCT	_	9 worked	punct
5	because	because	SCONJ	_	9 worked	mark
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 locks	det
7	locks	lock	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 worked	nsubj:pass
8	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 worked	aux:pass
9	worked	work	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Nothing	conj
10	with	with	ADP	_	12 water	case
11	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	12 water	det
12	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 worked	obl
13	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	9 worked	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	work	present · passive		the locks				with no water; whatsoever property	vn knead-26.5 «NP V NP.material»: subject=Material

Option 4

The canal would fill with sea water and actually work better than before

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 fill	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 fill	aux
4	fill	fill	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	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 fill	obl
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 work	cc
9	actually	actually	ADV	_	10 work	advmod
10	work	work	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 fill	conj
11	better	well	ADV	Degree=Cmp	10 work	advmod
12	than	than	ADP	_	13 before	case
13	before	before	ADV	_	10 work	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fill	would	the canal					with sea water	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent with water=Instrument
2	work	infinitive	the canal not said here					actually, well property	vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: 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.

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