Test 4 · ★ · Compasses and the magnetic Earth

What would happen to a compass on a ship made of steel if nobody corrected for it?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: nobody · What happens: happen, make, correct · To what, where: ship

This is test 4 · ★ of lesson 30 «Compasses and the magnetic Earth» of the physics course of Mova's primary school. 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	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	3 happen	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 happen	aux
3	happen	happen	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	6 compass	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 compass	det
6	compass	compass	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 happen	obl
7	on	on	ADP	_	9 ship	case
8	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	9 ship	det
9	ship	ship	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 happen	obl
10	made	make	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	9 ship	acl
11	of	of	ADP	_	12 steel	case
12	steel	steel	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 made	obl
13	if	if	SCONJ	_	15 corrected	mark
14	nobody	nobody	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Neg	15 corrected	nsubj
15	corrected	correct	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	10 made	advcl
16	for	for	ADP	_	17 it	case
17	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	15 corrected	obl
18	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	happen	would			a ship	to a compass	vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Theme on ship=Location
2	make	participle		a ship not said here		of steel	vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset
3	correct speech: disagree a condition, not said to happen	participle	nobody			for steel	vn remedy-45.7 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Agent

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

It would work better than on land

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	3 work	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 work	aux
3	work	work	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	better	well	ADV	Degree=Cmp	3 work	advmod
5	than	than	ADP	_	7 land	case
6	on	on	ADP	_	7 land	case
7	land	land	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 work	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	work	would	It					than land; well property	vn employment-95.3 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2

It would spin round and round forever and never settle down

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	3 spin	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 spin	aux
3	spin	spin	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	round	round	ADV	_	3 spin	advmod
5	and	and	CCONJ	_	6 round	cc
6	round	round	ADV	_	4 round	conj
7	forever	forever	ADV	_	3 spin	advmod
8	and	and	CCONJ	_	10 settle	cc
9	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	10 settle	advmod
10	settle	settle	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 spin	conj
11	down	down	ADP	_	10 settle	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	spin	would	It					forever, round property	vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme
2	not settle down	infinitive							vn convert-26.6.2 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

It could point the wrong way because of the ship's iron

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	3 point	nsubj
2	could	could	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 point	aux
3	point	point	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 way	det
5	wrong	wrong	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 way	amod
6	way	way	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 point	obj
7	because	because	ADP	ExtPos=ADP	12 iron	case
8	of	of	ADP	_	7 because	fixed
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 ship	det
10	ship	ship	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 iron	nmod:poss
11	's	's	PART	_	10 ship	case
12	iron	iron	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 point	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	point	could	It	the wrong way				because the ship's iron	vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent way=Patient

Option 4

It would point at the Moon

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	3 point	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 point	aux
3	point	point	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	at	at	ADP	_	6 Moon	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 Moon	det
6	Moon	Moon	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 point	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	point	would	It			the Moon			vn wink-40.3.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent

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/30-compasses-and-the-magnetic-earth/t4/