Exam question 2 · Climate: hot summers and hot arguments

Identify the principal cause, as widely reported by scientists, of the rise in the Earth's average temperature.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, principal · What happens: identify, cause, report · To what, where: principal

This is exam question 2 of lesson 21 «Climate: hot summers and hot arguments» of the politics 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	1 Identify	obj
4	cause	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 principal	acl:relcl
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 reported	punct
6	as	as	SCONJ	_	8 reported	mark
7	widely	widely	ADV	_	8 reported	advmod
8	reported	report	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	1 Identify	parataxis
9	by	by	ADP	_	10 scientists	case
10	scientists	scientist	NOUN	Number=Plur	8 reported	obl
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	14 rise	punct
12	of	of	ADP	_	14 rise	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	14 rise	det
14	rise	rise	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 reported	parataxis
15	in	in	ADP	_	20 temperature	case
16	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	17 Earth	det
17	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	20 temperature	nmod:poss
18	's	's	PART	_	17 Earth	case
19	average	average	ADJ	Degree=Pos	20 temperature	amod
20	temperature	temperature	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 rise	nmod
21	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent principal=Theme
2	cause	present	the principal not said here			vn result-27.2 «NP V PP»: agent=Precondition
3	report	participle			by scientists; widely property	vn characterize-29.2-1-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

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

A depletion of the Earth's supply of rainfall

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 depletion	det
2	depletion	depletion	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	7 supply	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 Earth	det
5	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 supply	nmod:poss
6	's	's	PART	_	5 Earth	case
7	supply	supply	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 depletion	nmod
8	of	of	ADP	_	9 rainfall	case
9	rainfall	rainfall	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 supply	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	deplete			the Earth's supply of rainfall					nom depletion «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 2

The influence of volcanic activity upon the Moon

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 influence	det
2	influence	influence	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 activity	case
4	volcanic	volcanic	ADJ	Degree=Pos	5 activity	amod
5	activity	activity	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 influence	nmod
6	upon	upon	ADP	_	8 Moon	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Moon	det
8	Moon	Moon	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 activity	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

A reduction in the distance between the Earth and the Sun

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 reduction	det
2	reduction	reduction	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	in	in	ADP	_	5 distance	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 distance	det
5	distance	distance	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reduction	nmod
6	between	between	ADP	_	8 Earth	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Earth	det
8	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 distance	nmod
9	and	and	CCONJ	_	11 Sun	cc
10	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 Sun	det
11	Sun	Sun	PROPN	Number=Sing	8 Earth	conj

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The combustion of coal, oil and gas

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 combustion	det
2	combustion	combustion	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 coal	case
4	coal	coal	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 combustion	nmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	6 oil	punct
6	oil	oil	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 combustion	appos
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 gas	cc
8	gas	gas	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 oil	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	combust		coal						nom combustion «process intransitive»: of=agent

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/politics/21-climate-hot-summers-and-hot-arguments/e2/