Exam question 4 · The air presses on everything

Ascertain the reason for which the human body is not crushed by atmospheric pressure.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 1 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, atmospheric pressure · What happens: ascertain, not crush · To what, where: reason, human body

This is exam question 4 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	Ascertain	ascertain	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 Ascertain	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 crushed	obl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 body	det
7	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 body	amod
8	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 crushed	nsubj:pass
9	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	11 crushed	aux:pass
10	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	11 crushed	advmod
11	crushed	crush	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 reason	acl:relcl
12	by	by	ADP	_	14 pressure	case
13	atmospheric	atmospheric	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 pressure	compound
14	pressure	pressure	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 crushed	obl
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the reason					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	not crush	present · passive	atmospheric pressure	the human body				for the reason	vn carve-21.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent subject=Patient

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 right answer

Internal pressures counterbalance the external pressure

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Internal	internal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 pressures	amod
2	pressures	pressure	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 counterbalance	nsubj
3	counterbalance	counterbalance	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 pressure	det
5	external	external	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 pressure	amod
6	pressure	pressure	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 counterbalance	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	counterbalance	present	Internal pressures	the external pressure					tree rules

Option 2

The skin is impermeable to pressure

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 skin	det
2	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 impermeable	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 impermeable	cop
4	impermeable	impermeable	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	PART	_	6 pressure	mark
6	pressure	pressure	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 impermeable	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the skin	pressure				impermeable property	tree rules

Option 3

The atmosphere exerts no pressure whatsoever upon living tissue

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 atmosphere	det
2	atmosphere	atmosphere	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 exerts	nsubj
3	exerts	exert	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	5 pressure	det
5	pressure	pressure	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 exerts	obj
6	whatsoever	whatsoever	ADV	_	3 exerts	advmod
7	upon	upon	ADP	_	9 tissue	case
8	living	living	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 tissue	amod
9	tissue	tissue	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 exerts	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	exert	present	the atmosphere	no pressure				upon living tissue; whatsoever property	vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent pressure=Theme

Option 4

Atmospheric pressure acts exclusively at night

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Atmospheric	Atmospheric	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 pressure	compound
2	pressure	pressure	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 acts	nsubj
3	acts	act	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	exclusively	exclusively	ADV	_	3 acts	advmod
5	at	at	ADP	_	6 night	case
6	night	night	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 acts	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	act	present	Atmospheric pressure				night	exclusively property	vn act-114-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/e4/