Exam question 4 · Swings and pendulums

Determine the effect upon the period of a swing of the substitution of a heavier rider for a lighter rider.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, substitution, heavier rider · What happens: determine, swing, substitute · To what, where: effect

This is exam question 4 of lesson 10 «Swings and pendulums» of the physics 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	Determine	determine	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 effect	det
3	effect	effect	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Determine	obj
4	upon	upon	ADP	_	6 period	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 period	det
6	period	period	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 effect	nmod
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 swing	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 swing	det
9	swing	swing	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 period	nmod
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 substitution	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 substitution	det
12	substitution	substitution	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 swing	nmod
13	of	of	ADP	_	16 rider	case
14	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 rider	det
15	heavier	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	16 rider	amod
16	rider	rider	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 substitution	nmod
17	for	for	ADP	_	20 rider	case
18	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	20 rider	det
19	lighter	light	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	20 rider	amod
20	rider	rider	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 rider	nmod
21	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Determine	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	determine	imperative	you not said here	the effect	upon the period of a swing of the substitution of a heavier rider for a lighter rider	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent effect=Topic
2	swing		the substitution of a heavier rider for a lighter rider			nom swing «state intransitive»: of=agent
3	substitute		a heavier rider for a lighter rider			nom substitution «event 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

The period is considerably shortened

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 period	det
2	period	period	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 shortened	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 shortened	aux:pass
4	considerably	considerably	ADV	_	5 shortened	advmod
5	shortened	shorten	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	shorten	present · passive		the period				considerably property	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient

Option 2

The period is considerably lengthened

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 period	det
2	period	period	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 lengthened	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 lengthened	aux:pass
4	considerably	considerably	ADV	_	5 lengthened	advmod
5	lengthened	lengthen	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lengthen	present · passive		the period				considerably property	vn other_cos-45.4 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient

Option 3

The swing ceases to oscillate

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 swing	det
2	swing	swing	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 ceases	nsubj
3	ceases	cease	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	to	to	PART	_	5 oscillate	mark
5	oscillate	oscillate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 ceases	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cease	present	the swing						vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Affector clause=Eventuality
2	oscillate	to-infinitive	the swing not said here						vn modes_of_being_with_motion-47.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The period remains unaltered

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 period	det
2	period	period	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 remains	nsubj
3	remains	remain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	unaltered	unaltered	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 remains	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	remain	present	the period					unaltered property	vn exist-47.1 «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.

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