Exam question 3 · Electricity and safety

Ascertain the reason for which a bird perched upon a single conductor sustains no injury.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, bird · What happens: ascertain, perch, sustain · To what, where: reason, bird, single conductor, injury

This is exam question 3 of lesson 28 «Electricity and safety» 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	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	13 sustains	obl
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 bird	det
7	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 sustains	nsubj
8	perched	perch	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 bird	acl
9	upon	upon	ADP	_	12 conductor	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 conductor	det
11	single	single	ADJ	Degree=Pos	12 conductor	amod
12	conductor	conductor	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 perched	obl
13	sustains	sustain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	acl:relcl
14	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	15 injury	det
15	injury	injury	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 sustains	obj
16	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the reason			vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	perch	participle		a bird not said here	a single conductor		vn assuming_position-50 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Agent upon conductor=Location
3	sustain	present	a bird	no injury		for the reason	vn sustain-55.6 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent injury=Theme

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

Its plumage absorbs the entirety of the current flowing in the line

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 plumage	nmod:poss
2	plumage	plumage	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 absorbs	nsubj
3	absorbs	absorb	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 entirety	det
5	entirety	entirety	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 absorbs	obj
6	of	of	ADP	_	8 current	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 current	det
8	current	current	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 entirety	nmod
9	flowing	flow	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	8 current	acl
10	in	in	ADP	_	12 line	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 line	det
12	line	line	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 flowing	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	absorb	present	Its plumage	the entirety of the current					vn absorb-39.8 «NP V NP»: agent=Goal entirety=Theme
2	flow	gerund	the current not said here			the line			vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in line=Location

Option 2

Birds are wholly immune to electric shock

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Birds	bird	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 immune	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 immune	cop
3	wholly	wholly	ADV	_	4 immune	advmod
4	immune	immune	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
5	to	to	ADP	_	7 shock	case
6	electric	electric	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 shock	amod
7	shock	shock	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 immune	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	Birds					to electric shock; immune, wholly property	tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

No path exists through its body to a point of differing potential

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	DET	PronType=Neg	2 path	det
2	path	path	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 exists	nsubj
3	exists	exist	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	through	through	ADP	_	6 body	case
5	its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	6 body	nmod:poss
6	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 exists	obl
7	to	to	ADP	_	9 point	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 point	det
9	point	point	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 exists	obl
10	of	of	SCONJ	_	11 differing	mark
11	differing	differ	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	9 point	acl
12	potential	potential	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 differing	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	exist	present	no path			path's body		to a point	vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through body=Location
2	differ	gerund	a point not said here					potential property	vn correspond-36.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 4

The current is suspended whenever a bird alights

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 current	det
2	current	current	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 suspended	nsubj:pass
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 suspended	aux:pass
4	suspended	suspend	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	whenever	whenever	ADV	PronType=Rel	8 alights	advmod
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 bird	det
7	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 alights	nsubj
8	alights	alight	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 suspended	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	suspend	present · passive		the current					vn fire-10.10 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme
2	alight	present	a bird					whenever property	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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/physics/28-electricity-and-safety/e3/