Exam question 2 · Glaciers and ice ages

Identify the principal reason for which sea level stood approximately 120 metres lower during the most recent glacial period.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, sea level · What happens: identify, stand · To what, where: principal reason

This is exam question 2 of lesson 54 «Glaciers and ice ages» 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 stood	obl
7	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 level	compound
8	level	level	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 stood	nsubj
9	stood	stand	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl
10	approximately	approximately	ADV	_	11 120	advmod
11	120	120	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	12 metres	nummod
12	metres	metre	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 lower	obl:unmarked
13	lower	low	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	9 stood	xcomp
14	during	during	ADP	_	19 period	case
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 period	det
16	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	17 recent	advmod
17	recent	recent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 period	amod
18	glacial	glacial	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 period	amod
19	period	period	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 stood	obl
20	.	.	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	stand	past	sea level				during the recent glacial period	for the principal reason; low property	vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Experiencer for which=Attribute

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

The oceans evaporated entirely into space

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 oceans	det
2	oceans	ocean	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 evaporated	nsubj
3	evaporated	evaporate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	3 evaporated	advmod
5	into	into	ADP	_	6 space	case
6	space	space	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 evaporated	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	evaporate	past	the oceans			space		entirely property	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 2

The Moon ceased to exert any pull

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Moon	det
2	Moon	Moon	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 ceased	nsubj
3	ceased	cease	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 exert	mark
5	exert	exert	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 ceased	xcomp
6	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	7 pull	det
7	pull	pull	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 exert	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cease	past	the Moon						vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality
2	exert	to-infinitive	the Moon not said here	any pull					vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pull=Theme

Option 3

The sea floor was elevated by volcanoes

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 floor	det
2	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 floor	compound
3	floor	floor	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 elevated	nsubj
4	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	5 elevated	aux:pass
5	elevated	elevate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
6	by	by	ADP	_	7 volcanoes	case
7	volcanoes	volcano	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 elevated	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	elevate	past · passive	volcanoes	the sea floor					vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Vast quantities of water were retained as ice upon the land

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Vast	vast	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 quantities	amod
2	quantities	quantity	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 retained	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 water	case
4	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 quantities	nmod
5	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 retained	aux:pass
6	retained	retain	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	as	as	ADP	_	8 ice	case
8	ice	ice	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 retained	obl
9	upon	upon	ADP	_	11 land	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 land	det
11	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 retained	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	retain	past · passive		Vast quantities of water				as ice; upon the land	tree rules

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/54-glaciers-and-ice-ages/e2/