Exam question 3 · Time zones and the date line

Identify the principal reason for which a uniform national time was adopted by the British railways.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, uniform, British railways · What happens: identify, time, adopt · To what, where: principal reason, national time

This is exam question 3 of lesson 4 «Time zones and the date line» 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	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	12 adopted	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 time	det
8	uniform	uniform	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 time	nsubj
9	national	national	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 time	amod
10	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 adopted	nsubj:pass
11	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	12 adopted	aux:pass
12	adopted	adopt	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl:relcl
13	by	by	ADP	_	16 railways	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 railways	det
15	British	British	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 railways	amod
16	railways	railway	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 adopted	obl
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	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	time		uniform			tree rules
3	adopt	past · passive	the British railways	a national time	for the principal reason	vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=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 Sun no longer kept regular time

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Sun	det
2	Sun	Sun	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 kept	nsubj
3	no	no	ADV	_	4 longer	advmod
4	longer	long	ADV	Degree=Cmp	5 kept	advmod
5	kept	keep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	regular	regular	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 time	amod
7	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 kept	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	past	the Sun				time	long property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 2

Local solar time had been abolished by Parliament

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Local	local	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 time	amod
2	solar	solar	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 time	amod
3	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 abolished	obl:unmarked
4	had	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 abolished	aux
5	been	be	AUX	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	6 abolished	aux:pass
6	abolished	abolish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	by	by	ADP	_	8 Parliament	case
8	Parliament	Parliament	PROPN	Number=Sing	6 abolished	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	abolish	past · perfect · passive	Parliament				time		vn remove-10.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

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

Railway timetables required a single common time

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Railway	railway	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 timetables	compound
2	timetables	timetable	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 required	nsubj
3	required	require	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 time	det
5	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 time	amod
6	common	common	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 time	amod
7	time	time	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 required	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	require	past	Railway timetables				time		vn require-103-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Theme

Option 4

Ships required it for navigation

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ships	ship	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 required	nsubj
2	required	require	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 required	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 navigation	case
5	navigation	navigation	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 required	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	require	past	Ships	it				for navigation	vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme it=Precondition

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/4-time-zones-and-the-date-line/e3/