Exam question 4 · Keeping warm and keeping cool: insulation and sweat

State the reason for which a vacuum flask preserves the temperature of its contents in either direction.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: vacuum flask · What happens: preserve · To what, where: temperature

This is exam question 4 of lesson 25 «Keeping warm and keeping cool: insulation and sweat» 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	State	state	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 reason	compound
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 preserves	obl
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 flask	det
7	vacuum	vacuum	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 flask	compound
8	flask	flask	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 preserves	nsubj
9	preserves	preserve	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	acl
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 temperature	det
11	temperature	temperature	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 preserves	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 contents	case
13	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	14 contents	nmod:poss
14	contents	contents	NOUN	Number=Ptan	11 temperature	nmod
15	in	in	ADP	_	17 direction	case
16	either	either	DET	PronType=Ind	17 direction	det
17	direction	direction	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 contents	nmod
18	.	.	PUNCT	_	3 reason	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	preserve	present	a vacuum flask	the temperature of flask's contents in either direction				for the State reason	vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent temperature=Beneficiary

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

It distinguishes hot contents from cold

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 distinguishes	nsubj
2	distinguishes	distinguish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	hot	hot	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 contents	amod
4	contents	contents	NOUN	Number=Ptan	2 distinguishes	obj
5	from	from	ADP	_	6 cold	case
6	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 distinguishes	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	distinguish	present	It	hot contents				from cold	vn distinguish-23.5-1 «NP V NP.theme PP.co-theme»: agent=Agent contents=Theme from cold=Co-Theme

Option 2

It contains a heating element

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 contains	nsubj
2	contains	contain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 element	det
4	heating	heating	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 element	compound
5	element	element	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 contains	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	contain	present	It	a heating element					vn comprise-107.2-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Pivot element=Theme

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The near absence of air between its walls impedes the passage of heat

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 absence	det
2	near	near	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 absence	amod
3	absence	absence	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 impedes	nsubj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 air	case
5	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 absence	nmod
6	between	between	ADP	_	8 walls	case
7	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 walls	nmod:poss
8	walls	wall	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 air	nmod
9	impedes	impede	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 passage	det
11	passage	passage	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 impedes	obj
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 heat	case
13	heat	heat	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 passage	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	impede	present	the near absence of air between absence's walls	the passage of heat	vn discourage-64.5-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Causer passage=Eventuality
2	absent			air between absence's walls	nom absence «state transitive»: of=patient
3	pass		heat		nom passage «act intransitive»: of=agent

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

It generates cold within its walls

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	It	it	PRON	Case=Nom Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 generates	nsubj
2	generates	generate	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	cold	cold	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 generates	xcomp
4	within	within	ADP	_	6 walls	case
5	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 walls	nmod:poss
6	walls	wall	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 generates	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	generate	present	It					within its walls; cold property	vn grow-26.2.1 «NP.patient V PP.product»: agent=Patient

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/25-keeping-warm-and-keeping-cool/e4/