Exam question 1 · Pressure tricks: pumps, tyres and vacuums

Identify the principal reason for which water boils at a reduced temperature at high altitude.

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, water · What happens: identify, boil, reduce · To what, where: principal reason, reduced temperature

This is exam question 1 of lesson 16 «Pressure tricks: pumps, tyres and vacuums» 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 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 boils	obl
7	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 boils	nsubj
8	boils	boil	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 reason	acl
9	at	at	ADP	_	12 temperature	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 temperature	det
11	reduced	reduce	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	12 temperature	amod
12	temperature	temperature	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 boils	obl
13	at	at	ADP	_	15 altitude	case
14	high	high	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 altitude	amod
15	altitude	altitude	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 boils	obl
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	boil	present	water		a reduced temperature	for the principal reason; at high altitude	vn cooking-45.3 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient
3	reduce	participle					vn limit-76 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer

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

The vessel conducts heat less readily

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 vessel	det
2	vessel	vessel	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 conducts	nsubj
3	conducts	conduct	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	heat	heat	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 conducts	obj
5	less	less	ADV	Degree=Cmp	6 readily	advmod
6	readily	readily	ADV	_	3 conducts	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	conduct	present	the vessel	heat				readily property	vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent heat=Theme

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The atmospheric pressure acting upon the water is diminished

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 pressure	det
2	atmospheric	atmospheric	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 pressure	compound
3	pressure	pressure	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 diminished	nsubj:pass
4	acting	act	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	3 pressure	acl
5	upon	upon	ADP	_	7 water	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 water	det
7	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 acting	obl
8	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	9 diminished	aux:pass
9	diminished	diminish	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	act	gerund	the atmospheric pressure not said here					upon the water	vn act-114-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
2	diminish	present · passive		the atmospheric pressure					vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V NP.patient»: subject=Patient

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice

The flame burns more fiercely in the thin air found at high altitude

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 flame	det
2	flame	flame	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 burns	nsubj
3	burns	burn	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	more	more	ADV	Degree=Cmp	5 fiercely	advmod
5	fiercely	fiercely	ADV	_	3 burns	advmod
6	in	in	ADP	_	9 air	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 air	det
8	thin	thin	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 air	amod
9	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 burns	obl
10	found	find	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 air	acl
11	at	at	ADP	_	13 altitude	case
12	high	high	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 altitude	amod
13	altitude	altitude	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 found	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	burn	present	the flame			the thin air		fiercely property	vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in air=Location
2	find	participle		the thin air not said here		high altitude			vn declare-29.4-1-1 «NP V what S_INF»: agent=Agent

Option 4

The water is of a different chemical composition

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 water	det
2	water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 composition	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 composition	cop
4	of	of	ADP	_	8 composition	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 composition	det
6	different	different	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 composition	amod
7	chemical	chemical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 composition	amod
8	composition	composition	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the water					of a different chemical composition	tree rules

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.

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