Exam question 1 · Riding a bike: why it stays up

Identify the principal means by which a cyclist maintains equilibrium upon a moving bicycle.

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 4 · right ✓ · Who acts: you, principal, cyclist · What happens: identify, mean, maintain, move · To what, where: equilibrium

This is exam question 1 of lesson 9 «Riding a bike: why it stays up» 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	3 principal	det
3	principal	principal	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 means	nsubj
4	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	1 Identify	ccomp
5	by	by	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 maintains	obl
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 cyclist	det
8	cyclist	cyclist	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 maintains	nsubj
9	maintains	maintain	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 means	parataxis
10	equilibrium	equilibrium	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 maintains	obj
11	upon	upon	ADP	_	14 bicycle	case
12	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	14 bicycle	det
13	moving	move	VERB	VerbForm=Ger	14 bicycle	amod
14	bicycle	bicycle	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 maintains	obl
15	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here			vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V S_ING»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	mean	present	the principal			vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V S»: agent=Agent
3	maintain	present	a cyclist	equilibrium	upon a moving bicycle	vn declare-29.4-1 «NP V NP ADJ»: agent=Agent equilibrium=Theme
4	move	gerund				vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=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

By the gyroscopic action of the pedals alone

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	4 action	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 action	det
3	gyroscopic	gyroscopic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 action	amod
4	action	action	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 pedals	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 pedals	det
7	pedals	pedal	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 action	nmod
8	alone	alone	ADV	_	7 pedals	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	act		the pedals						nom action «act intransitive»: of=agent

Option 2

By the upward pressure of the air upon the frame

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	ADP	_	4 pressure	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 pressure	det
3	upward	upward	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 pressure	amod
4	pressure	pressure	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 air	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 air	det
7	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 pressure	nmod
8	upon	upon	ADP	_	10 frame	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 frame	det
10	frame	frame	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 air	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	press			the air upon the frame					nom pressure «phenomenon transitive»: of=patient

Option 3

By keeping the body perfectly motionless upon the saddle

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 keeping	mark
2	keeping	keep	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 body	det
4	body	body	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 keeping	obj
5	perfectly	perfectly	ADV	_	6 motionless	advmod
6	motionless	motionless	ADJ	Degree=Pos	2 keeping	xcomp
7	upon	upon	ADP	_	9 saddle	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 saddle	det
9	saddle	saddle	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 motionless	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	keep	gerund		the body				motionless property	vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent body=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer

By steering the front wheel into any incipient lean

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	By	by	SCONJ	_	2 steering	mark
2	steering	steer	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 wheel	det
4	front	front	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 wheel	amod
5	wheel	wheel	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 steering	obj
6	into	into	ADP	_	9 lean	case
7	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	9 lean	det
8	incipient	incipient	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 lean	compound
9	lean	lean	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 steering	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	steer	gerund		the front wheel		any incipient lean			vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent wheel=Theme into lean=Destination

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/9-riding-a-bike/e1/