Exam question 1 · Explorers, scientists and inventors

Select the response that is consistent with the established facts concerning the prevailing understanding of the Earth's shape among educated Europeans in the fifteenth century.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, response, established facts · What happens: select, be, establish, concern, prevail, educate · To what, where: response, prevailing understanding, shape

This is exam question 1 of lesson 20 «Explorers, scientists and inventors» of the myths 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	Select	select	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 response	det
3	response	response	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Select	obj
4	that	that	PRON	PronType=Rel	6 consistent	nsubj
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 consistent	cop
6	consistent	consistent	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 response	acl:relcl
7	with	with	ADP	_	10 facts	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 facts	det
9	established	establish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 facts	amod
10	facts	fact	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 consistent	obl
11	concerning	concern	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	10 facts	acl
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 understanding	det
13	prevailing	prevail	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	14 understanding	amod
14	understanding	understanding	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 concerning	obj
15	of	of	ADP	_	19 shape	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 Earth	det
17	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	19 shape	nmod:poss
18	's	's	PART	_	17 Earth	case
19	shape	shape	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 understanding	nmod
20	among	among	ADP	_	22 Europeans	case
21	educated	educate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	22 Europeans	amod
22	Europeans	European	PROPN	Number=Plur	19 shape	nmod
23	in	in	ADP	_	26 century	case
24	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	26 century	det
25	fifteenth	fifteenth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	26 century	amod
26	century	century	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 concerning	obl
27	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Select	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	select	imperative	you not said here	the response			vn obtain-13.5.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent response=Theme
2	is	present	the response			with the established facts; consistent property	tree rules
3	establish	participle					vn indicate-78-1-1 «NP V NP to be NP»: agent=Pivot
4	concern	gerund	the established facts not said here	the prevailing understanding of the Earth's shape among educated Europeans	century		vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus understanding=Experiencer
5	prevail	gerund					vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
6	educate speech: other	participle					vn advise-37.9 «NP V NP.recipient»: agent=Agent
7	understand			the Earth's shape among educated Europeans			nom understanding «cognition 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

The Earth's shape was regarded as wholly unknowable

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Earth	det
2	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 shape	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 Earth	case
4	shape	shape	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 regarded	nsubj:pass
5	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	6 regarded	aux:pass
6	regarded	regard	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	as	as	SCONJ	_	9 unknowable	mark
8	wholly	wholly	ADV	_	9 unknowable	advmod
9	unknowable	unknowable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 regarded	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	regard	past · passive		the Earth's shape				unknowable property	vn assessment-34.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 2

The Earth was understood to be cylindrical

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Earth	det
2	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 understood	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 understood	aux:pass
4	understood	understand	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	7 cylindrical	mark
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 cylindrical	cop
7	cylindrical	cylindrical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 understood	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	understand	past · passive		the Earth					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Stimulus
2	is	to-infinitive						cylindrical property	tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The Earth was understood to be spherical

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Earth	det
2	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 understood	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 understood	aux:pass
4	understood	understand	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	7 spherical	mark
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 spherical	cop
7	spherical	spherical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 understood	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	understand	past · passive		the Earth					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Stimulus
2	is	to-infinitive						spherical property	tree rules

Option 4

The Earth was understood to be a flat disc

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Earth	det
2	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 understood	nsubj:pass
3	was	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	4 understood	aux:pass
4	understood	understand	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	9 disc	mark
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	9 disc	cop
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 disc	det
8	flat	flat	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 disc	amod
9	disc	disc	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 understood	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	understand	past · passive		the Earth					vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: subject=Stimulus
2	is a	to-infinitive		a flat disc					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/myths/20-explorers-scientists-and-inventors/e1/