Test 6 · ★★★ · Canals: Suez, Panama and the shortcuts

Why were canals cheaper than roads for moving heavy coal?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: canals · What happens: be, move · To what, where: heavy coal

This is test 6 · ★★★ 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	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	4 cheaper	advmod
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 cheaper	cop
3	canals	canal	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 cheaper	nsubj
4	cheaper	cheap	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
5	than	than	ADP	_	6 roads	case
6	roads	road	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 cheaper	obl
7	for	for	SCONJ	_	8 moving	mark
8	moving	move	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 cheaper	advcl
9	heavy	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 coal	amod
10	coal	coal	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 moving	obj
11	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 cheaper	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	past	canals					than roads; cheap property	tree rules
2	move	gerund	canals not said here	heavy coal					vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V NP.theme»: agent=Agent coal=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

Coal floats by itself, so it could simply be pushed along the water

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Coal	coal	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 floats	nsubj
2	floats	float	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	by	by	ADP	_	4 itself	case
4	itself	itself	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs Reflex=Yes	2 floats	obl
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 pushed	punct
6	so	so	ADV	_	11 pushed	advmod
7	it	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	11 pushed	nsubj:pass
8	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	11 pushed	aux
9	simply	simply	ADV	_	11 pushed	advmod
10	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	11 pushed	aux:pass
11	pushed	push	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 floats	advcl
12	along	along	ADP	_	14 water	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 water	det
14	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 pushed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	float	present	Coal					by Coal	vn run-51.3.2-2 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme by itself=Trajectory
2	push	could · passive		Coal		the water		simply property	vn funnel-9.3-1-1 «NP V NP PP.trajectory»: subject=Theme along water=Trajectory

Option 2

Boats need nobody to steer them, so no wages had to be paid to boatmen

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Boats	boat	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 need	nsubj
2	need	need	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	2 need	obj
4	to	to	PART	_	5 steer	mark
5	steer	steer	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 nobody	acl
6	them	they	PRON	Case=Acc Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 steer	obj
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 had	punct
8	so	so	ADV	_	11 had	advmod
9	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	10 wages	det
10	wages	wage	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 had	nsubj
11	had	have	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 need	conj
12	to	to	PART	_	14 paid	mark
13	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	14 paid	aux:pass
14	paid	pay	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 had	xcomp
15	to	to	ADP	_	16 boatmen	case
16	boatmen	boatman	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 paid	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	need	present	Boats	nobody		vn want-32.1-1-1 «NP V NP ADV»: agent=Pivot nobody=Theme
2	steer	to-infinitive	Boats not said here	Boats = boat		vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent they=Theme
3	have	past	no wages			tree rules
4	pay	to-infinitive · passive	no wages not said here		to boatmen	vn pay-68-1 «NP V NP»

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

Roads were all toll roads, and canals were always free to use for everyone

The tree, 14 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Roads	road	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 roads	nsubj
2	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 roads	cop
3	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	5 roads	det
4	toll	toll	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 roads	compound
5	roads	road	NOUN	Number=Plur	root	root
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	11 free	punct
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 free	cc
8	canals	canal	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 free	nsubj
9	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 free	cop
10	always	always	ADV	PronType=Tot	11 free	advmod
11	free	free	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 roads	parataxis
12	to	to	PART	_	13 use	mark
13	use	use	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	11 free	advcl
14	for	for	ADP	_	15 everyone	case
15	everyone	everyone	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Tot	13 use	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	is a	past	Roads	all toll roads		tree rules
2	is	past	canals		always, free property	tree rules
3	use	to-infinitive	canals not said here		for everyone	vn eat-39.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

A horse could pull a much heavier load on a floating boat than on a cart

The tree, 16 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 horse	det
2	horse	horse	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 pull	nsubj
3	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 pull	aux
4	pull	pull	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 load	det
6	much	much	ADV	_	7 heavier	advmod
7	heavier	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	8 load	amod
8	load	load	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 pull	obj
9	on	on	ADP	_	12 boat	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 boat	det
11	floating	float	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	12 boat	amod
12	boat	boat	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 pull	obl
13	than	than	ADP	_	16 cart	case
14	on	on	ADP	_	16 cart	case
15	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 cart	det
16	cart	cart	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 pull	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	pull	could	a horse	a heavier load		a floating boat		than a cart	vn push-12-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent load=Theme
2	float	gerund							vn run-51.3.2-2 «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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/geography/20-canals-suez-panama-and-the-shortcuts/t6/