Exam question 2 · Friction: the grip that stops and helps

Identify the principal reason for which the brakes of a bicycle are rendered less effective in wet conditions.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: identify, render · To what, where: principal reason, brakes, wet conditions

This is exam question 2 of lesson 6 «Friction: the grip that stops and helps» 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	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	13 rendered	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 brakes	det
8	brakes	brake	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 rendered	nsubj:pass
9	of	of	ADP	_	11 bicycle	case
10	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	11 bicycle	det
11	bicycle	bicycle	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 brakes	nmod
12	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 rendered	aux:pass
13	rendered	render	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	4 reason	acl:relcl
14	less	less	ADV	Degree=Cmp	15 effective	advmod
15	effective	effective	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 rendered	xcomp
16	in	in	ADP	_	18 conditions	case
17	wet	wet	ADJ	Degree=Pos	18 conditions	amod
18	conditions	condition	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 rendered	obl
19	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	render	present · passive		the brakes of a bicycle		wet conditions		for the principal reason; effective property	vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: subject=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

Water causes the tyres to become inflated

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 causes	nsubj
2	causes	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 tyres	det
4	tyres	tyre	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 causes	obj
5	to	to	PART	_	6 become	mark
6	become	become	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	2 causes	advcl
7	inflated	inflate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	6 become	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	cause	present	Water	the tyres	vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition tyre=Patient
2	become	to-infinitive	Water not said here		tree rules
3	inflate	participle	Water not said here		vn bend-45.2 «NP.patient V»: agent=Patient

Option 2

Water increases the mass of the wheel

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 increases	nsubj
2	increases	increase	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 mass	det
4	mass	mass	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 increases	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 wheel	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 wheel	det
7	wheel	wheel	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 mass	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	increase	present	Water	the mass of the wheel					vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Causer mass=Patient

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Water between pad and rim diminishes their grip

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 diminishes	nsubj
2	between	between	ADP	_	3 pad	case
3	pad	pad	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Water	nmod
4	and	and	CCONJ	_	5 rim	cc
5	rim	rim	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 pad	conj
6	diminishes	diminish	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
7	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 grip	nmod:poss
8	grip	grip	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 diminishes	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	diminish	present	Water between pad and rim	pad's grip					vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V NP.patient»: agent=Causer grip=Patient
2	grip		pad						nom grip «act transitive»: poss=agent

Option 4

Water lowers the temperature of the rider's hands

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Water	water	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 lowers	nsubj
2	lowers	lower	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 temperature	det
4	temperature	temperature	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 lowers	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	9 hands	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 rider	det
7	rider	rider	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 hands	nmod:poss
8	's	's	PART	_	7 rider	case
9	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 temperature	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lower	present	Water	the temperature of the rider's hands					vn put_direction-9.4 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent temperature=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.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/physics/6-friction-the-grip/e2/