Exam question 1 · Explorers: around Africa and Columbus

Identify the principal error in the calculations of Christopher Columbus.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, Christopher · What happens: identify, calculate · To what, where: principal error, calculations

This is exam question 1 of lesson 26 «Explorers: around Africa and Columbus» of the history 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 error	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 error	amod
4	error	error	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	in	in	ADP	_	7 calculations	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 calculations	det
7	calculations	calculation	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Identify	obl
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 Christopher	case
9	Christopher	Christopher	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 calculations	nmod
10	Columbus	Columbus	PROPN	Number=Sing	9 Christopher	flat
11	.	.	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 error		the calculations of Christopher			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent error=Theme
2	calculate		Christopher						nom calculation «act intransitive»: of=agent

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

He believed the Earth to be flat and that ships could fall off

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 believed	nsubj
2	believed	believe	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 Earth	det
4	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 believed	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	7 flat	mark
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 flat	cop
7	flat	flat	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 believed	xcomp
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	12 fall	cc
9	that	that	SCONJ	_	12 fall	mark
10	ships	ship	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 fall	nsubj
11	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	12 fall	aux
12	fall	fall	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 believed	conj
13	off	off	ADP	_	12 fall	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	believe	past	He	the Earth		vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer earth=Stimulus
2	is	to-infinitive	He not said here		flat property	tree rules
3	fall off	could	ships			vn calibratable_cos-45.6.1-1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute

Option 2

He miscounted his ships

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 miscounted	nsubj
2	miscounted	miscount	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	his	his	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 ships	nmod:poss
4	ships	ship	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 miscounted	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	miscount	past	He	his ships					tree rules

Option 3

He mistook west for east

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 mistook	nsubj
2	mistook	mistake	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	west	west	ADV	_	2 mistook	advmod
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 east	case
5	east	east	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 mistook	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mistake	past	He					for east; west property	tree rules

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

He greatly underestimated the size of the Earth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	He	he	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Masc Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	3 underestimated	nsubj
2	greatly	greatly	ADV	_	3 underestimated	advmod
3	underestimated	underestimate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 size	det
5	size	size	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 underestimated	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 Earth	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Earth	det
8	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 size	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	underestimate	past	He	the size of the Earth				greatly property	vn characterize-29.2-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent size=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/history/26-explorers-around-africa-and-columbus/e1/