Test 3 · ★★★ · How stars die

A pulsar's beam sweeps past the Earth 30 times a second. What does that tell you?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 4 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: beam, pulsar, that · What happens: sweep, beam, tell · To what, where: Earth, you · Speech: someone speaks here

This is test 3 · ★★★ of lesson 19 «How stars die» of the space course of Mova's primary school. 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

Sentence 1: A pulsar's beam sweeps past the Earth 30 times a second.

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 pulsar	det
2	pulsar	pulsar	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 beam	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 pulsar	case
4	beam	beam	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 sweeps	nsubj
5	sweeps	sweep	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	past	past	ADP	_	8 Earth	case
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 Earth	det
8	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	5 sweeps	obl
9	30	30	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	10 times	nummod
10	times	time	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 sweeps	obl:unmarked
11	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	12 second	det
12	second	second	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 times	nmod:unmarked
13	.	.	PUNCT	_	5 sweeps	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	sweep	present	a pulsar's beam			the Earth	time		vn run-51.3.2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme past earth=Trajectory
2	beam		a pulsar						nom beam «communication transitive»: poss=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.

Sentence 2: What does that tell you?

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	What	what	PRON	PronType=Int	4 tell	obj
2	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 tell	aux
3	that	that	PRON	Number=Sing PronType=Dem	4 tell	nsubj
4	tell	tell	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	root	root
5	you	you	PRON	Case=Acc Person=2 PronType=Prs	4 tell	iobj
6	?	?	PUNCT	_	4 tell	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	tell speech: assert	present · do-support	that		you				vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent you=Recipient what=Topic

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

Aliens are sending 30 messages a second to the Earth

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Aliens	alien	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 sending	nsubj
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 sending	aux
3	sending	send	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	root	root
4	30	30	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	5 messages	nummod
5	messages	message	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 sending	obj
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 second	det
7	second	second	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 sending	obl:unmarked
8	to	to	ADP	_	10 Earth	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 Earth	det
10	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 sending	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	send	present · progressive	Aliens	30 messages	the Earth		second		vn confine-92-1 «NP V NP PP.destination»: agent=Agent message=Theme to earth=Destination

Option 2

The star is 30 km wide and lights up once for each kilometre

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 star	det
2	star	star	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 wide	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 wide	cop
4	30	30	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	5 km	nummod
5	km	km	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 wide	obl:unmarked
6	wide	wide	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 lights	cc
8	lights	light	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 wide	conj
9	up	up	ADP	_	8 lights	compound:prt
10	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	8 lights	advmod
11	for	for	ADP	_	13 kilometre	case
12	each	each	DET	PronType=Tot	13 kilometre	det
13	kilometre	kilometre	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 lights	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the star					30 km obl:unmarked; wide property	tree rules
2	light up	present	the star not said here					for each kilometre; once property	vn preparing-26.3-1 «NP V NP PP.beneficiary»: agent=Agent for kilometre=Beneficiary

Option 3

The star is 30 years old and flashes once for every year

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 star	det
2	star	star	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 old	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 old	cop
4	30	30	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	5 years	nummod
5	years	year	NOUN	Number=Plur	6 old	obl:unmarked
6	old	old	ADJ	Degree=Pos	root	root
7	and	and	CCONJ	_	8 flashes	cc
8	flashes	flash	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	6 old	conj
9	once	once	ADV	NumForm=Word NumType=Mult	8 flashes	advmod
10	for	for	ADP	_	12 year	case
11	every	every	DET	PronType=Tot	12 year	det
12	year	year	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 flashes	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the star				year	old property	tree rules
2	flash	present	the star not said here				year	once property	vn light_emission-43.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 4 · ✓ the right answer

The neutron star spins 30 times a second

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 star	det
2	neutron	neutron	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 star	compound
3	star	star	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 spins	nsubj
4	spins	spin	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	30	30	NUM	NumForm=Digit NumType=Card	6 times	nummod
6	times	time	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 spins	obl:unmarked
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 second	det
8	second	second	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 times	nmod:unmarked

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	spin	present	the neutron star				time		vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=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/space/19-how-stars-die/t3/