Exam question 1 · Rivers shaping the land

Identify the principal reason for which a waterfall forms in the course of a river.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, waterfall · What happens: identify, form · To what, where: principal reason, course

This is exam question 1 of lesson 53 «Rivers shaping the land» 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	9 forms	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 waterfall	det
8	waterfall	waterfall	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 forms	nsubj
9	forms	form	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl
10	in	in	ADP	_	12 course	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 course	det
12	course	course	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 forms	obl
13	of	of	ADP	_	15 river	case
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	15 river	det
15	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 course	nmod
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	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	form	present	a waterfall			the course of a river		for the principal reason	vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in course=Location

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 · ← Mova's choice

Aquatic creatures excavate the riverbed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Aquatic	aquatic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 creatures	amod
2	creatures	creature	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 excavate	nsubj
3	excavate	excavate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 riverbed	det
5	riverbed	riverbed	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 excavate	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	excavate	present	Aquatic creatures	the riverbed					vn search-35.2 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent riverbed=Location

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

A stratum of resistant rock overlies a less resistant stratum

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 stratum	det
2	stratum	stratum	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 overlies	case
4	resistant	resistant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 overlies	amod
5	rock	rock	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 overlies	compound
6	overlies	overlie	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 stratum	nmod
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 stratum	det
8	less	less	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	10 stratum	amod
9	resistant	resistant	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 stratum	amod
10	stratum	stratum	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 overlies	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

The river is subjected to a sudden decrease in temperature

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 river	det
2	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 subjected	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 subjected	aux:pass
4	subjected	subject	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	to	to	ADP	_	8 decrease	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 decrease	det
7	sudden	sudden	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 decrease	amod
8	decrease	decrease	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 subjected	obl
9	in	in	ADP	_	10 temperature	case
10	temperature	temperature	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 decrease	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	subject	present · passive		the river				to a sudden decrease in temperature	tree rules

Option 4

The river attains its greatest width

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 river	det
2	river	river	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 attains	nsubj
3	attains	attain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 width	nmod:poss
5	greatest	great	ADJ	Degree=Sup	6 width	amod
6	width	width	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 attains	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	attain	present	the river	river's greatest width					vn get-13.5.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent width=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/53-rivers-shaping-the-land/e1/