Exam question 4 · Riding a bike: why it stays up

Determine the reason for which a stationary bicycle without support falls over.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, stationary bicycle · What happens: determine, fall over · To what, where: reason

This is exam question 4 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	Determine	determine	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 reason	det
3	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Determine	obj
4	for	for	ADP	_	5 which	case
5	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	11 falls	obl
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 bicycle	det
7	stationary	stationary	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 bicycle	compound
8	bicycle	bicycle	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 falls	nsubj
9	without	without	ADP	_	10 support	case
10	support	support	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 bicycle	nmod
11	falls	fall	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 reason	acl
12	over	over	ADV	_	11 falls	advmod
13	.	.	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 reason					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent reason=Topic
2	fall over	present	a stationary bicycle without support					for the reason; over property	vn long-32.2 «NP V PP.theme»: agent=Pivot for which=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

The tyres lose their air when at rest

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 tyres	det
2	tyres	tyre	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 lose	nsubj
3	lose	lose	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	5 air	nmod:poss
5	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lose	obj
6	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	3 lose	advmod
7	at	at	ADP	_	8 rest	case
8	rest	rest	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 lose	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	lose	present	the tyres	tyres's air		rest			vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent air=Eventuality

Option 2

Its centre of gravity is located beneath the ground

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Its	its	PRON	Case=Gen Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	2 centre	nmod:poss
2	centre	centre	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 located	nsubj:pass
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 gravity	case
4	gravity	gravity	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 centre	nmod
5	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 located	aux:pass
6	located	locate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
7	beneath	beneath	ADP	_	9 ground	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 ground	det
9	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 located	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	locate	present · passive		Its centre of gravity				beneath the ground	tree rules

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

No forward motion is available by which to steer beneath the lean

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	No	no	DET	PronType=Neg	3 motion	det
2	forward	forward	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 motion	amod
3	motion	motion	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 available	nsubj
4	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	5 available	cop
5	available	available	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
6	by	by	SCONJ	_	9 steer	mark
7	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	9 steer	nsubj
8	to	to	PART	_	9 steer	mark
9	steer	steer	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	5 available	advcl
10	beneath	beneath	ADP	_	12 lean	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 lean	det
12	lean	lean	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 steer	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	no forward motion					available property	tree rules
2	steer	to-infinitive				the lean			vn accompany-51.7 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent beneath lean=Destination

Option 4

The frame becomes heavier when stationary

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 frame	det
2	frame	frame	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 becomes	nsubj
3	becomes	become	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	heavier	heavy	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	3 becomes	xcomp
5	when	when	ADV	PronType=Int	6 stationary	advmod
6	stationary	stationary	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 becomes	xcomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	become	present	the frame	stationary				heavy property	vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient

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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