Exam question 4 · Floating in the real world: ice, submarines and balloons
Determine the reason for which a steel paper clip, gently placed, remains upon the surface of water.
Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, paper clip · What happens: determine, place, remain · To what, where: reason, paper clip, surface
This is exam question 4 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 | Determine | determine | VERB | Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 2 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 3 reason | det |
| 3 | reason | reason | NOUN | Number=Sing | 1 Determine | obj |
| 4 | for | for | ADP | _ | 5 which | case |
| 5 | which | which | PRON | PronType=Rel | 14 remains | obl |
| 6 | a | a | DET | Definite=Ind PronType=Art | 9 clip | det |
| 7 | steel | steel | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 paper | compound |
| 8 | paper | paper | NOUN | Number=Sing | 9 clip | compound |
| 9 | clip | clip | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 remains | nsubj |
| 10 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 12 placed | punct |
| 11 | gently | gently | ADV | _ | 12 placed | advmod |
| 12 | placed | place | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | 9 clip | acl:relcl |
| 13 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 14 remains | punct |
| 14 | remains | remain | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 reason | acl |
| 15 | upon | upon | ADP | _ | 17 surface | case |
| 16 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 17 surface | det |
| 17 | surface | surface | NOUN | Number=Sing | 14 remains | obl |
| 18 | of | of | ADP | _ | 19 water | case |
| 19 | water | water | NOUN | Number=Sing | 17 surface | nmod |
| 20 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 1 Determine | punct |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | determine | imperative | you not said here | the reason | vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic | ||||
| 2 | place | participle | a paper clip not said here | gently property | vn put-9.1-2 «NP V PP.destination NP»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 3 | remain | present | a paper clip | the surface of water | for the reason | vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme upon surface=Location |
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
It is attracted upwards by the air
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | It | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 attracted | nsubj:pass |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 attracted | aux:pass |
| 3 | attracted | attract | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 4 | upwards | upwards | ADV | _ | 3 attracted | advmod |
| 5 | by | by | ADP | _ | 7 air | case |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 air | det |
| 7 | air | air | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 attracted | obl |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | attract | present · passive | the air | It | upwards property | vn lure-59.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient |
Option 2 · ✓ the right answer
It is supported by the surface layer of the water
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | It | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 supported | nsubj:pass |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 supported | aux:pass |
| 3 | supported | support | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 4 | by | by | ADP | _ | 7 layer | case |
| 5 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 7 layer | det |
| 6 | surface | surface | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 layer | compound |
| 7 | layer | layer | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 supported | obl:agent |
| 8 | of | of | ADP | _ | 10 water | case |
| 9 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 10 water | det |
| 10 | water | water | NOUN | Number=Sing | 7 layer | nmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | support | present · passive | the surface layer of the water | It | vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer subject=Stimulus |
Option 3
It is of lesser density than water
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | It | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 5 density | nsubj |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 5 density | cop |
| 3 | of | of | ADP | _ | 5 density | case |
| 4 | lesser | less | ADJ | Degree=Cmp | 5 density | amod |
| 5 | density | density | NOUN | Number=Sing | root | root |
| 6 | than | than | ADP | _ | 7 water | case |
| 7 | water | water | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 density | nmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | present | It | of lesser density; than water | tree rules |
Option 4
It is buoyed up by the hollow interior of the steel wire
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | It | it | PRON | Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs | 3 buoyed | nsubj:pass |
| 2 | is | be | AUX | Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 3 buoyed | aux:pass |
| 3 | buoyed | buoy | VERB | Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass | root | root |
| 4 | up | up | ADP | _ | 3 buoyed | compound:prt |
| 5 | by | by | ADP | _ | 8 interior | case |
| 6 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 8 interior | det |
| 7 | hollow | hollow | ADJ | Degree=Pos | 8 interior | amod |
| 8 | interior | interior | NOUN | Number=Sing | 3 buoyed | obl |
| 9 | of | of | ADP | _ | 12 wire | case |
| 10 | the | the | DET | Definite=Def PronType=Art | 12 wire | det |
| 11 | steel | steel | NOUN | Number=Sing | 12 wire | compound |
| 12 | wire | wire | NOUN | Number=Sing | 8 interior | nmod |
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | buoy up | present · passive | the hollow interior of the steel wire | It | vn support-15.3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot subject=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/physics/12-ice-submarines-and-balloons/e4/