Exam question 4 · Water safety and the ocean

Determine the reason for which a dam is constructed with greater thickness at its base.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: determine, construct · To what, where: reason, dam, base

This is exam question 4 of lesson 13 «Water safety and the ocean» 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	9 constructed	obl
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 dam	det
7	dam	dam	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 constructed	nsubj:pass
8	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 constructed	aux:pass
9	constructed	construct	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 reason	acl:relcl
10	with	with	ADP	_	12 thickness	case
11	greater	great	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	12 thickness	amod
12	thickness	thickness	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 constructed	obl
13	at	at	ADP	_	15 base	case
14	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	15 base	nmod:poss
15	base	base	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 constructed	obl
16	.	.	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	construct	present · passive		a dam		dam's base		for the reason; with greater thickness	vn create-26.4 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: subject=Result for which=Beneficiary

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 upper portion of the dam bears the greatest pressure

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 portion	det
2	upper	upper	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 portion	amod
3	portion	portion	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	7 bears	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 bears	det
6	dam	dam	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 bears	compound
7	bears	bear	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 portion	nmod
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 pressure	det
9	greatest	great	ADJ	Degree=Sup	10 pressure	amod
10	pressure	pressure	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 bears	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2

Fish require a thick wall for shelter

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Fish	fish	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 require	nsubj
2	require	require	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 wall	det
4	thick	thick	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 wall	amod
5	wall	wall	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 require	obj
6	for	for	ADP	_	7 shelter	case
7	shelter	shelter	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 require	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	require	present	Fish	a thick wall				for shelter	vn require-103-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme wall=Precondition

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The pressure of the water increases with depth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 pressure	det
2	pressure	pressure	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 increases	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 water	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 water	det
5	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 pressure	nmod
6	increases	increase	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	with	with	ADP	_	8 depth	case
8	depth	depth	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 increases	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	increase	present	the pressure of the water					with depth	vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient
2	press			the water					nom pressure «phenomenon transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

The base must support a carriageway

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 base	det
2	base	base	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 support	nsubj
3	must	must	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 support	aux
4	support	support	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 carriageway	det
6	carriageway	carriageway	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 support	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	support	must	the base	a carriageway					vn admire-31.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer carriageway=Stimulus

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/13-water-safety-and-the-ocean/e4/