Exam question 2 · Static electricity: balloons, hair and sparks

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the behaviour of two bodies bearing like charges?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: two bodies · What happens: follow, characteris, bear · To what, where: behaviour

This is exam question 2 of lesson 26 «Static electricity: balloons, hair and sparks» 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	Which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	8 characterises	nsubj
2	of	of	ADP	_	5 statements	case
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 statements	det
4	following	follow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	5 statements	amod
5	statements	statement	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 characterises	obl
6	most	most	ADV	Degree=Sup	7 accurately	advmod
7	accurately	accurately	ADV	_	8 characterises	advmod
8	characterises	characteris	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 behaviour	det
10	behaviour	behaviour	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 characterises	obj
11	of	of	ADP	_	13 bodies	case
12	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	13 bodies	nummod
13	bodies	body	NOUN	Number=Plur	10 behaviour	nmod
14	bearing	bear	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	13 bodies	acl
15	like	like	ADP	_	16 charges	case
16	charges	charge	NOUN	Number=Plur	14 bearing	obl
17	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 characterises	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	follow	gerund				vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	characteris	present		the behaviour of two bodies	of the following statements; accurately property	tree rules
3	bear	gerund	two bodies not said here		like charges	vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer

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

They attract one another

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 attract	nsubj
2	attract	attract	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	2 attract	obj
4	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	3 one	fixed

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	attract	present	They	one					vn lure-59.3 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent one=Patient

Option 2

They exchange their charges instantaneously

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 exchange	nsubj
2	exchange	exchange	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	4 charges	nmod:poss
4	charges	charge	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 exchange	obj
5	instantaneously	instantaneously	ADV	_	2 exchange	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	exchange	present	They	their charges				instantaneously property	vn exchange-13.6.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent charge=Theme
2	charge		their = they						nom charge «act transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

They exert no influence upon one another

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 exert	nsubj
2	exert	exert	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	4 influence	det
4	influence	influence	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 exert	obj
5	upon	upon	ADP	_	6 one	case
6	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	4 influence	appos
7	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	6 one	fixed

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	exert	present	They	no influence					vn use-105.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent influence=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

They repel one another

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	They	they	PRON	Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs	2 repel	nsubj
2	repel	repel	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	one	one	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	2 repel	obj
4	another	another	DET	PronType=Ind	3 one	fixed

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	repel	present	They	one					vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus one=Experiencer

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/26-static-electricity-balloons-hair-and-sparks/e2/