Exam question 2 · Floating in the real world: ice, submarines and balloons

Identify the principal means by which a submarine is caused to descend.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, principal, submarine · What happens: identify, mean, cause, descend · To what, where: submarine · Speech: someone speaks here

This is exam question 2 of lesson 12 «Floating in the real world: ice, submarines and balloons» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 principal	det
3	principal	principal	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 means	nsubj
4	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Identify	ccomp
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 caused	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 submarine	det
8	submarine	submarine	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 caused	nsubj:pass
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	10 caused	aux:pass
10	caused	cause	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 means	ccomp
11	to	to	PART	_	12 descend	mark
12	descend	descend	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	10 caused	xcomp
13	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	mean	present	the principal		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic
3	cause	present · passive		a submarine	tree rules
4	descend	to-infinitive	a submarine not said here		vn meander-47.7-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

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 folding of external wings

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

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

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	fold			external wings					nom folding «process transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

The extinguishing of its interior lights

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 extinguishing	det
2	extinguishing	extinguishing	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 lights	case
4	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 lights	nmod:poss
5	interior	interior	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 lights	compound
6	lights	light	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 extinguishing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	light		its = it						nom light «phenomenon transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

The release of all the air through its hatches into the sea

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 release	det
2	release	release	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 air	case
4	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	6 air	det:predet
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 air	det
6	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 release	nmod
7	through	through	ADP	_	9 hatches	case
8	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	9 hatches	nmod:poss
9	hatches	hatch	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 air	nmod
10	into	into	ADP	_	12 sea	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 sea	det
12	sea	sea	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 release	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	hatch		air						nom hatch «process intransitive»: poss=agent

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The admission of seawater into its ballast tanks

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 admission	det
2	admission	admission	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 seawater	case
4	seawater	seawater	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 admission	nmod
5	into	into	ADP	_	8 tanks	case
6	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 tanks	nmod:poss
7	ballast	ballast	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 tanks	compound
8	tanks	tank	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 admission	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	admit			seawater		seawater's ballast tanks			nom admission «act transitive»: of=patient into=place

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/physics/12-ice-submarines-and-balloons/e2/