Exam question 1 · Mirrors, rainbows and the blue sky

Identify the principal cause of the blue colour of the daytime sky.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, cause · To what, where: principal cause, blue colour

This is exam question 1 of lesson 21 «Mirrors, rainbows and the blue sky» 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 cause	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 cause	amod
4	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	8 colour	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 colour	det
7	blue	blue	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 colour	amod
8	colour	colour	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 cause	nmod
9	of	of	ADP	_	12 sky	case
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 sky	det
11	daytime	daytime	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 sky	compound
12	sky	sky	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 colour	nmod
13	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal cause of the blue colour of the daytime sky					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent cause=Theme
2	cause			the blue colour of the daytime sky					nom cause «event transitive»: of=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 emission of blue light alone by the Sun

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 emission	det
2	emission	emission	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 light	case
4	blue	blue	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 light	amod
5	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 emission	nmod
6	alone	alone	ADV	_	5 light	advmod
7	by	by	ADP	_	9 Sun	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 Sun	det
9	Sun	Sun	PROPN	Number=Sing	2 emission	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	emit		the Sun	blue light					nom emission «act transitive»: of=patient by=agent

Option 2

The reflection of the oceans upon the atmosphere

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 reflection	det
2	reflection	reflection	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 oceans	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 oceans	det
5	oceans	ocean	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 reflection	nmod
6	upon	upon	ADP	_	8 atmosphere	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 atmosphere	det
8	atmosphere	atmosphere	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reflection	nmod

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

Option 3

The intrinsic blue colour of outer space

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

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

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

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The preferential scattering of blue light by the gases of the atmosphere

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 scattering	det
2	preferential	preferential	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 scattering	amod
3	scattering	scattering	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 light	case
5	blue	blue	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 light	amod
6	light	light	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 scattering	nmod
7	by	by	ADP	_	9 gases	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 gases	det
9	gases	gas	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 scattering	nmod
10	of	of	ADP	_	12 atmosphere	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 atmosphere	det
12	atmosphere	atmosphere	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 gases	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/21-mirrors-rainbows-and-the-blue-sky/e1/