Exam question 4 · Glaciers and ice ages

Ascertain the present condition of the majority of the world's mountain glaciers.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, condition · To what, where: present condition, majority

This is exam question 4 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 condition	det
3	present	present	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 condition	amod
4	condition	condition	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 majority	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 majority	det
7	majority	majority	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 condition	nmod
8	of	of	ADP	_	13 glaciers	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 world	det
10	world	world	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 glaciers	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 world	case
12	mountain	mountain	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 glaciers	compound
13	glaciers	glacier	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 majority	nmod
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the present condition of the majority of the world's mountain glaciers					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent condition=Topic
2	condition			the majority of the world's mountain glaciers					nom condition «state transitive»: of=patient

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

They are expanding rapidly in all regions

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 expanding	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 expanding	aux
3	expanding	expand	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	rapidly	rapidly	ADV	_	3 expanding	advmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 regions	case
6	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	7 regions	det
7	regions	region	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 expanding	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	expand	present · progressive	They			all regions		rapidly property	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 2

They have remained unaltered since 1850

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 remained	nsubj
2	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 remained	aux
3	remained	remain	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	unaltered	unalter	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 remained	xcomp
5	since	since	ADP	_	6 1850	case
6	1850	1850	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	4 unaltered	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	remain	present · perfect	They						tree rules
2	unalter	participle	They not said here				since 1850		tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

They are diminishing rapidly in consequence of human-caused warming

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 diminishing	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 diminishing	aux
3	diminishing	diminish	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	rapidly	rapidly	ADV	_	3 diminishing	advmod
5	in	in	ADP	_	6 consequence	case
6	consequence	consequence	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 diminishing	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	11 warming	case
8	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 warming	amod
9	-	-	PUNCT	_	8 human	punct
10	caused	cause	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	11 warming	amod
11	warming	warming	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 consequence	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	diminish	present · progressive	They			consequence of human caused warming		rapidly property	vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient
2	cause	participle							vn result-27.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Precondition

Option 4

They have entirely disappeared

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 disappeared	nsubj
2	have	have	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 disappeared	aux
3	entirely	entirely	ADV	_	4 disappeared	advmod
4	disappeared	disappear	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	disappear	present · perfect	They					entirely property	vn disappearance-48.2-1 «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/54-glaciers-and-ice-ages/e4/