Exam question 1 · The air presses on everything

Identify the principal agency whereby a beverage is caused to ascend a drinking straw.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, beverage · What happens: identify, cause, ascend · To what, where: principal agency, beverage, drinking straw

This is exam question 1 of lesson 14 «The air presses on everything» 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	4 agency	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 agency	amod
4	agency	agency	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	whereby	whereby	ADV	PronType=Int	9 caused	advmod
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 beverage	det
7	beverage	beverage	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 caused	nsubj:pass
8	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 caused	aux:pass
9	caused	cause	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Identify	advcl
10	to	to	PART	_	11 ascend	mark
11	ascend	ascend	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	9 caused	xcomp
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 straw	det
13	drinking	drinking	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 straw	compound
14	straw	straw	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 ascend	obj
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal agency		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent agency=Theme
2	cause	present · passive		a beverage	whereby property	tree rules
3	ascend	to-infinitive	a beverage not said here	a drinking straw		vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme straw=Trajectory

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

An attractive force exerted by the mouth directly upon the liquid in the cup

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	An	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	3 force	det
2	attractive	attractive	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 force	amod
3	force	force	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 liquid	nsubj
4	exerted	exert	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 force	acl
5	by	by	ADP	_	7 mouth	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 mouth	det
7	mouth	mouth	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 exerted	obl
8	directly	directly	ADV	_	11 liquid	advmod
9	upon	upon	ADP	_	11 liquid	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 liquid	det
11	liquid	liquid	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
12	in	in	ADP	_	14 cup	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 cup	det
14	cup	cup	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 liquid	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	exert	participle		a attractive force not said here				by the mouth	vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The pressure exerted by the surrounding atmosphere upon the beverage

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	root	root
3	exerted	exert	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	2 pressure	acl
4	by	by	ADP	_	7 atmosphere	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 atmosphere	det
6	surrounding	surround	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 atmosphere	amod
7	atmosphere	atmosphere	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 exerted	obl
8	upon	upon	ADP	_	10 beverage	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 beverage	det
10	beverage	beverage	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 atmosphere	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	exert	participle		the pressure not said here				by the surrounding atmosphere upon the beverage	vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	surround	gerund							vn contiguous_location-47.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Theme

Option 3

The elasticity of the material of the straw

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 elasticity	det
2	elasticity	elasticity	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 material	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 material	det
5	material	material	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 elasticity	nmod
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 straw	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 straw	det
8	straw	straw	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 material	nmod

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

Option 4

The intrinsic buoyancy of the beverage in air

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 buoyancy	det
2	intrinsic	intrinsic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 buoyancy	amod
3	buoyancy	buoyancy	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 beverage	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 beverage	det
6	beverage	beverage	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 buoyancy	nmod
7	in	in	ADP	_	8 air	case
8	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 beverage	nmod

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

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/14-the-air-presses-on-everything/e1/