Exam question 4 · What sound is: wobbles in the air

Identify the means by which a bat determines the position of obstacles in darkness.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, the, bat · What happens: identify, mean, determine · To what, where: position

This is exam question 4 of lesson 17 «What sound is: wobbles in the air» 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	3 means	nsubj
3	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Identify	ccomp
4	by	by	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 determines	obl
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 bat	det
7	bat	bat	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 determines	nsubj
8	determines	determine	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 means	parataxis
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 position	det
10	position	position	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 determines	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	12 obstacles	case
12	obstacles	obstacle	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 position	nmod
13	in	in	ADP	_	14 darkness	case
14	darkness	darkness	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 obstacles	nmod
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	mean	present	the		vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
3	determine	present	a bat	the position of obstacles in darkness	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent position=Topic

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

By vision unaffected by the absence of light

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	2 vision	case
2	vision	vision	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	unaffected	unaffected	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 vision	amod
4	by	by	ADP	_	6 absence	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 absence	det
6	absence	absence	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 unaffected	obl
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 light	case
8	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 absence	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	absent			light					nom absence «state transitive»: of=patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

By the reception of echoes of its own high-pitched calls

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	3 reception	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reception	det
3	reception	reception	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 echoes	case
5	echoes	echo	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 reception	nmod
6	of	of	ADP	_	12 calls	case
7	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	12 calls	nmod:poss
8	own	own	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 calls	amod
9	high	high	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 pitched	compound
10	-	-	PUNCT	_	9 high	punct
11	pitched	pitch	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	12 calls	amod
12	calls	call	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 echoes	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	pitch	participle			vn throw-17.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent
2	receive			echoes of reception's own pitched calls	nom reception «communication transitive»: of=patient
3	call		reception		nom call «communication transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

By the sense of smell alone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	3 sense	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 sense	det
3	sense	sense	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 smell	case
5	smell	smell	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 sense	nmod
6	alone	alone	ADV	_	5 smell	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sense			smell					nom sense «cognition transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

By memory of all previous flights

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	2 memory	case
2	memory	memory	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 flights	case
4	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	6 flights	det
5	previous	previous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 flights	amod
6	flights	flight	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 memory	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/17-what-sound-is-wobbles-in-the-air/e4/