Exam question 4 · Living with friction: oil, wheels and grip

Determine the consequence for ordinary human activity of the total absence of friction.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: determine, absent · To what, where: consequence, friction

This is exam question 4 of lesson 7 «Living with friction: oil, wheels and grip» 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	Determine	determine	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 consequence	det
3	consequence	consequence	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Determine	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	7 activity	case
5	ordinary	ordinary	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 activity	amod
6	human	human	ADJ	Degree=Pos	7 activity	amod
7	activity	activity	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 consequence	nmod
8	of	of	ADP	_	11 absence	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 absence	det
10	total	total	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 absence	amod
11	absence	absence	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 activity	nmod
12	of	of	ADP	_	13 friction	case
13	friction	friction	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 absence	nmod
14	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Determine	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	determine	imperative	you not said here	the consequence				for ordinary human activity of the total absence of friction	vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent consequence=Topic
2	absent			friction					nom absence «state transitive»: of=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 · ← Mova's choice

All bodies would remain permanently at rest upon the ground

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	All	all	DET	PronType=Tot	2 bodies	det
2	bodies	body	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 remain	nsubj
3	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 remain	aux
4	remain	remain	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	permanently	permanently	ADV	_	4 remain	advmod
6	at	at	ADP	_	7 rest	case
7	rest	rest	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 remain	obl
8	upon	upon	ADP	_	10 ground	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 ground	det
10	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 rest	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	remain	would	all bodies			rest upon the ground		permanently property	vn exist-47.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme at rest=Location

Option 2

Walking would be rendered effortless

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Walking	walk	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	4 rendered	nsubj:pass
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	4 rendered	aux
3	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	4 rendered	aux:pass
4	rendered	render	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
5	effortless	effortless	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 rendered	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	walk	gerund							vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	render	would · passive						effortless property	vn give-13.1 «NP V NP»: subject=Theme

Option 3

Objects would adhere to the hands

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Objects	object	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 adhere	nsubj
2	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	3 adhere	aux
3	adhere	adhere	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
4	to	to	ADP	_	6 hands	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 hands	det
6	hands	hand	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 adhere	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	adhere	would	Objects					to the hands	vn cling-22.5 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme to hand=Co-Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

Walking and grasping objects would be impossible

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Walking	walk	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	7 impossible	csubj
2	and	and	CCONJ	_	3 grasping	cc
3	grasping	grasp	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	1 Walking	conj
4	objects	object	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 grasping	obj
5	would	would	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	7 impossible	aux
6	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	7 impossible	cop
7	impossible	impossible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	walk	gerund				vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme
2	grasp	gerund		objects		vn comprehend-87.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer object=Stimulus
3	is	would	Walking		impossible 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/7-living-with-friction/e4/