Exam question 1 · Petrol stations, pools and things that go bang

Identify the principal cause of fires occurring at fuel pumps, as ascertained from investigations.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, fires · What happens: identify, occur, ascertain, cause · To what, where: principal cause, fuel pumps, investigations, fires

This is exam question 1 of lesson 23 «Petrol stations, pools and things that go bang» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 cause	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 cause	amod
4	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	6 fires	case
6	fires	fire	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 cause	nmod
7	occurring	occur	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	6 fires	acl
8	at	at	ADP	_	10 pumps	case
9	fuel	fuel	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 pumps	compound
10	pumps	pump	NOUN	Number=Plur	7 occurring	obl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 ascertained	punct
12	as	as	SCONJ	_	13 ascertained	mark
13	ascertained	ascertain	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Identify	parataxis
14	from	from	ADP	_	15 investigations	case
15	investigations	investigation	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 ascertained	obl
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal cause of fires		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent cause=Theme
2	occur	gerund	fires not said here		fuel pumps	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme at pump=Location
3	ascertain	participle			investigations	vn discover-84 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent
4	cause			fires		nom cause «event 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 operation of mobile telephones

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 operation	det
2	operation	operation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 telephones	case
4	mobile	mobile	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 telephones	amod
5	telephones	telephone	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 operation	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	operate			mobile telephones					nom operation «state transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

The heating of fuel by sunlight

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 heating	det
2	heating	heating	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 fuel	case
4	fuel	fuel	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 heating	nmod
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 sunlight	case
6	sunlight	sunlight	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 heating	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	heat		fuel						nom heating «process intransitive»: of=agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The discharge of static electricity

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 discharge	det
2	discharge	discharge	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 electricity	case
4	static	static	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 electricity	amod
5	electricity	electricity	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 discharge	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	discharge			static electricity					nom discharge «event transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

The use of electric vehicle chargers nearby

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 use	det
2	use	use	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 chargers	case
4	electric	electric	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 chargers	amod
5	vehicle	vehicle	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 chargers	compound
6	chargers	charger	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 use	nmod
7	nearby	nearby	ADV	_	6 chargers	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	use			electric vehicle chargers					nom use «act transitive»: of=patient

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.

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