Test 7 · ★★ · Pulleys, gears and big machines

What would happen if a clock's hour hand were joined straight to the minute hand with no gears?

Mova's choice: option 3 · The right answer: option 3 · right ✓ · What happens: happen, join · To what, where: hour hand

This is test 7 · ★★ of lesson 35 «Pulleys, gears and big machines» 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	if	if	SCONJ	_	11 joined	mark
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	6 clock	det
6	clock	clock	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 hour	nmod:poss
7	's	's	PART	_	6 clock	case
8	hour	hour	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 hand	compound
9	hand	hand	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 joined	nsubj:pass
10	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 joined	aux:pass
11	joined	join	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	3 happen	advcl
12	straight	straight	ADV	_	16 hand	advmod
13	to	to	ADP	_	16 hand	case
14	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 hand	det
15	minute	minute	NOUN	Number=Sing	16 hand	compound
16	hand	hand	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 joined	obl
17	with	with	ADP	_	19 gears	case
18	no	no	DET	PronType=Neg	19 gears	det
19	gears	gear	NOUN	Number=Plur	16 hand	nmod
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	3 happen	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	happen	would							vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	join a condition, not said to happen	past · passive		hour hand				to the minute hand with no gears	vn mix-22.1-2-1 «NP V NP PP.co-patient»: subject=Patient to hand=Co-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

The clock would run backwards instead of forwards

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 clock	det
2	clock	clock	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 run	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 run	aux
4	run	run	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	backwards	backwards	ADV	_	4 run	advmod
6	instead	instead	ADV	ExtPos=ADP	8 forwards	case
7	of	of	ADP	_	6 instead	fixed
8	forwards	forward	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 run	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	run	would	the clock					instead forwards; backwards property	vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

The clock would chime every few minutes all day

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 clock	det
2	clock	clock	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 chime	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 chime	aux
4	chime	chime	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	7 minutes	det
6	few	few	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 minutes	amod
7	minutes	minute	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 chime	obl:unmarked
8	all	all	DET	PronType=Tot	9 day	det
9	day	day	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 chime	obl:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	chime	would	the clock				day; minute		vn sound_emission-43.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

Both hands would turn at the same speed

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	2 hands	det
2	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 turn	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 turn	aux
4	turn	turn	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	at	at	ADP	_	8 speed	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 speed	det
7	same	same	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 speed	amod
8	speed	speed	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 turn	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	turn	would	both hands			the same speed			vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme at speed=Trajectory

Option 4

The hour hand would stop and never move again

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 hand	det
2	hour	hour	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 hand	compound
3	hand	hand	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 stop	nsubj
4	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	5 stop	aux
5	stop	stop	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
6	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 move	cc
7	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	8 move	advmod
8	move	move	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 stop	conj
9	again	again	ADV	_	8 move	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	stop	would	the hour hand						vn stop-55.4-1-1 «NP.eventuality V»: agent=Eventuality
2	not move	infinitive	the hour hand not said here				again		vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme

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.

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